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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

I) 

A NARRATIVE 



OF THB 



LIFE AND ADYENTUEES 



OF 



CHARLES BALL, 



A BLACK MAN, 



TUa UTKD rOETT TEAKS IK 3Ji.RTLA.jrD, SOUTH CARGLINl 'AXD GEORGIA, A3 1 SLATE 

( rifDER VARIOUS MASTERS, AND 'WAS ONE TEAR IN THE NAVT WITH COMMODORE BARKET. 

DURING THE LATE WAR; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND USAGES 

OT THE PLANTERS AND SLAVEHOLDERS OF THE 80LT:n — A DESCRIPTION OP 

THE CONDITION AND TREATMENT OF THE SLAVES, WIEH OBSERVATIONS 

UPON THE STATE OF MORALS AMONGST THE COTTON PLANTERS, 

AND THE PERILS AND SUFFERINGS OP A FUGITIVE SL.\.VK, 

1 WHO TWICE ESCAPED FROM THE COTTON COUNTST. ' 



PITTSBURGH: 
PEINTBD AND PUBLISHED BY J. T. SHETOCK 
1853. 






Entered, accokdisg to Act or Congress, ra the yeae 1S3G, 

Et JOHN W. SIIUGERT, 

In the Ci*aK'8 Office of the Westekn District of Pemnsylvaxia. 



2^6-^-^' / 



PREFACE. 



In the following pages, the reader will find embodied 
tlie principal incidents that have occurred in the life of a 
Slave, in the United States of America. The narrative 
is taken from the mouth of the adventurer himself; and 
if the copy does not retain the identical words of the 
original, the sense and import, at least, are faithfully 
preserved. 

Many of his opinions have been cautiously omitted, or 
carefully suppressed, as being of no value to the reader, 
and his sentiments upon the subject of slavery have not 
been embodied in this work. The design of the writer, 
who is no more than the recorder of the facts detailed to 
him by another, has been to render the narrative as simple, 
and the style of the story as plain as the laws of the 
language would permit. To introduce the reader, as it 
were, to a view of the cotton fields, and exhibit, not to 
his imagination, but to his very eyes, the mode of life to 
which the slaves on the Southern plantations must con- 
form, has been the primary object of the compiler. 

The book has been written without fear or prejudice 
and no opinions have been consulted in its composition. 
The sole view of the writer has been to make the citizens 
of the United States acquainted with each other, and to 
give a faithful portrait of the manners, usages and customs 
of the Southern people, so far as those manners, usages 
and customs have fallen under the observation of a common 
negro slave, endued by nature with a tolerable portion of 
intellectual capacity. The more reliance is to be placed 
upon his relations of those things that he saw in the 



VI. PREFACE. 

Southern country, when it is recollected that he had been 
born and brought up in a part of the State of Maryland, 
in which, of all others, the spirit of the "old aristocracy," 
as it has not unaptly been called, retained much of its 
pristine vigor in his youth; and where he had an early 
opportunity of seeing many of the most respectable, best 
educated, and most highly enlightened families of both 
Maryland and Virginia. A constant succession of kind 
offices, friendly visits, and family alliances, having at that 
day united the most distinguished inhabitants of the two 
sides of the Potomac in the social relations of one people. 
It might naturally be expected that a man who had 
passed through so many scenes of adversity, and had 
suffered so many wrongs at the hands of his fellow men, 
would feel much of the bitterness of heart that is engen' 
dered by a remembrance of unatoned injuries; but every 
sentiment of this kind has been carefully. excluded from 
the following pages, in which the reader will find nothincr 
but an unadorned detail of acts, and the impressions those 
acts produced on the mind of him upon whom they 
operated. 



ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL- 



CHAPTER I. 

The system of slavery, as practised in the United 
States, has been, and is now, but little understood by the 
people who live North of the Potomac and the Ohio; for, 
although, individual cases of extreme cruelty and oppres- 
sion occasionally occur in Maryland, yet the general 
treatment of the black people, is far more lenient and mild 
in that State, than it is farther South. This, I presume, 
is mainly to be attributed to the vicinity of the free State 
of Pennsylvania; but, in no small degree, to the influence 
of the population of the cities of Baltimore and Wash- 
ington, over the families of the planters of the surrounding 
counties. For experience has taught me, that both mas- 
ters and mistresses, who, if not observed by strangers, 
would treat their slaves with the utmost rigor, are so far 
operated upon, by a sense of shame or pride, as to provide 
them tolerably with both food and clothing, when they 
know their conduct is subject to the observation of persons, 
whose good opinion they wish to preserve. A large num- 
ber of the most respectable and wealthy people, in both 
"Washington and Baltimore, being altogether opposed to 
the practice of slavery, hold a constant control over the 
actions of their friends, the farmers, and thus prevent 
much misery; but in the South, the c<ise is widely diifcr- 

B 



10 THE ADVENTURES OF 

ent. There, every man, and every woman too, exc-ept 
prevented by poverty, is a slaveholder; and the entire 
white population is leagued together by a common bond 
of the most sordid interest, in the torture and oppression 
of the poor descendants of Africa. If the negro is 
wrono-ed, there is no one to whom he can complain — if 
suffering for want of the coarsest food, he dare not steal — 
if flogged till the flesh falls from his bones, he must not 
murmur — and if compelled to perform his daily toil in an 
iron collar, no expression of resentment must escape his 
lips. 

People of the Northern Stxites, who make excursions to 
the South, visit the principal cities and towns, travel the 
most freqented highways, or even sojourn for a time at the 
residences of the large planters, and partake of .their hospi- 
tality and amusements, know nothing of the condition of 
the Southern slaves. To acquire this knowledge, the trav- 
eller must take up his abode for a season, in the lodge of 
the overseer, pass a summer in the remote cotton fields, or 
spend a year within view of the rice swamps. By attend- 
ing for one month, the court which the overseer of a large 
estate holds every evening in the cotton-gin yard, and 
witnessing the execution of his decrees, a Turk or a Rus- 
sian, would find the tribunals of his country far outdone. 
It seems to be a law of nature, that slavery is equally 
destructive to the master and the slave, for, whilst it stu- 
pifies the latter with fear, and reduces him below the con- 
dition of man, it brutalizes the former, by the practice of 
continual tyranny ; and makes him the prey of all the 
vices which render human nature loathsome. 

In the following simple narrative of an unlearned man, 
I havs endeavored, faithfully and truly, to present to the 
reader, some of the most material accidents which occurred 



CHARLES BALL, 11 

to myself, iu a period of thirty years of slavery iu the free 
Republic of the United States ; as well as many circum- 
stances, which I observed in the condition and conduct of 
other persons during that period. 

It has been supposed, by many, that the state of the 
Southern slaves is constantly becoming better ; and that 
the treatment which they receive at the hands of their 
masters, is progressively milder and more humane ; but 
the contrary of all this, is unquestionably the truth ; for, 
\^under the bad culture which is practised in the South, the 
land is constantly becoming poorer, and the means of 
getting food, more and more difficult. So long as the land 
is new and rich, and produces corn and sweet potatoes 
abundantly, the black people seldom suffer greatly for 
food; but, when the ground is all cleared, and planted in 
rice, or cotton, corn and potatoes become scarce; and when 
corn has to he bought on a cotton plantation, the people 
must expect to make acquaintance with hunger. 

^My grand-father was brought from Africa, and sold as & 
slave in Calvert county, in Maryland, about the year 1730. 
I never understood the name of the ship in which he was 
imported, nor the name of the planter, who bought him on 
his arrival, but at the time I knew him, he was a slave in a 
family called Mauel, who resided near Leonardtown. My 
father was a slave in a family named Hantz, living near 
the same place. My mother was the slave of a tobacco 
planter, an old man, who died, according to the best of 
my recollection, when I was about four years old, leaving 
his property in such a situation that it became necossary, 
as I suppose, to sell a part of it to pay his debts. Soon 
after his death, several of his slaves, and with others, 
myself, were sold at public vendue. My mother had 
several children, my brothers and sisters, and we were all 



ld£ THE ADVENTURES OF 

sold on the Bame day to different purchasers. Gur new 
masters took us away, and I never saw my mother, nor 
any of my brothers or sisters afterwards. This wa«, I 
presume, about the year 1785. I learned subsequently, 
from my father, that my mother was sold to a Georgia 
trader, who soon after that carried her away from Mary- 
land. Her other children were sold to slave-dealers from 
Carolina, and were also taken away, so that I was left 
alone in Calvert county, with my father, whose owner lived 
only a few miles from my new master's residence. At the 
time I was sold I was cjuite naked, having 'never had any 
clothes in my life; but my new master had brought with 
him a child's frock or w;rapper, belonging to one of his own 
children; and after he had purchased me, he dressed me 
in this garment, took me before him on his horse, and 
started home; but my poor mother, when she saw me 
leaving her for the last time, ran after me, took me down 
from the horse, clasped me in her arms, and wept loiidly 
and bitterly over me. My master seemed to pity her, and 
endeavored to soothe her distress by telling her that he 
would be a good master to me, and that I should not want 
any thing. She then, still liolding me in her arms, walked 
along the road beside the horse as he moved slowly, and 
earnestly and imploringly besought my master to buy her 
and the rest of her children, and not permit them to be 
carried away ])y the negro buyers; but whilst thus entreat- 
ing him to save her and her family, the slave-driver, who 
had first bought her, came running in pursuit of her with 
a raw-hide in his hand. When he overtook us, he told 
• her he was her master now, and ordered her to give that 
little negro to its owner, and come back with him. 

My mother then turned to him and cried, ^'Gh master, 
do not take me from my child !" Without making any 



CHARLES BALL. 13 

reply, he gave her two or three heavy blow3 on the shoul- 
ders with his raw-hide, snatched me from her arms, handed 
me to my master, and seizing her by one arm, dragged her 
back toward the place of sale. My master then quickened 
the pace of his horse; and as we advanced, the cries of 
my poor parent became more and more indistinct—at 
length, they died away in the distance, and I never again 
heard the voice of my poor mother. Young as I was, the 
horrors of that day sank deeply into my heart, and even 
at this time, though half a century has elapsed, the terrors 
of the scene return with painful vividness upon my 
memory. Frightened at the sight of the cruelties inflicted 
upon my poor mother, I forgot my own sorrows at 
parting from her and clung to my new master, as an angel 
and a Saviour, when compared with the hardened fiend, 
into whose power she had fallen. She had been a kind 
and good mother to me; had warmed me in her bosom in 
the cold nights of winter; had often divided the scanty 
pittance of food allowed her by her mistress, between my 
brothers and sisters and me, and gone supperless to bed 
herself. Whatever victuals she could obtain beyond the 
coarse food, salt fish^ and corn- bread, allowed to slaves on 
the Patuxent and Potomac rivers ; she carefully distrib- 
uted among her children, and treated us with all the ten- 
derness which her own miserable condition would permit. 
I have no doubt that she was chained and driven to 
Carolina, and toiled out the residue of a forlorn and 
famished existence in the rice swamps, or indigo fields of 
the South. 

My father never recovered from the effects of the shock, 
which this sudden and overwhelming ruin of his family 
gave him. He had formerly been of a gay social temper, 
and when he came to see us on a Saturday night, he always 



14 THE ADVENTURES OP 

broiiglit U8 some little present, such as the means of a poor 
slave would allow — apples, melons, sweet potatoes, or if he 
could procure nothing else, a little parched corn, which 
tasted better in our cabin, because he had brought it. 

He spent the greater part of the time, which his master 
permitted him to pass with us, in relating such stories as 
he had learned from his companions, or in singing the 
rude songs common amongst the slaves of Maryland and 
Virginia. After this time, I never heard him laugh 
heartily, or sing a song. He became gloomy and morose 
in his temper, to all but me; and spent nearly all his 
leisure time with my grand-father, who claimed kindred 
with some royal family in Africa, and had been a great 
warrior in his native country. The master of my father 
was a hard penurious man, and so exceedingly avaricious, 
that he scarcely allowed himself the common conveniences 
of life. A stranger to sensibility, he was incapable of 
tracing the change in the temper and deportment of my 
father, to its true cause; but attributed it to a sullen 
discontent with his condition as a slave, and a desire to 
abandon his service, and seek his liberty, by escaping to 
some of the free States. To prevent the perpetration of 
this suspected crime of running away from davery^ the 
old man resolved to sell my father to a Southern slav^- 
dealer, and accordingly applied to one of those men, who 
was at that time in Calvert, to become the purchaser. 
The price was agreed on, but, as my father was a very 
ftrong, active, and resolute man, it was deemed unsafe for 
the Georgian to attempt to seize him, even with the aid of 
others, in the day time, when he was at work, as it was 
knovrn he carried upon his person a large knife. It was 
therefore determined to secure him by stratagem, and for 
this purpose, a farmer in the neighborhood, who was made 



CHARLES BALL. 16 

privy to the plan^ alleged that he had lost a pig, which 
must have been stolen by some one, and that he suspected 
my father to be the thief. A constable was employed to 
arrest him, but as he was afraid to undertake the business 
alone, he called on his way, at the house of the master of 
my grandfather, to procure assistance from the overseer of 
the plantation. When he arrived at the house, the over- 
seer was at the barn, and thither he repaired to make his 
application. At the end of the barn was the coach-house, 
and as the day was cool, to avoid the wind which was high, 
the two walked to the side of the coach-house to talk over 
the matter, and settle their plan of operations. It so 
happened that my grand-father, whose business it was to 
keep the coach in good condition, was at work at this time, 
rubbing the plated handles of the doors, and brightening 
the other metalic parts of the vehicle. Hearing the voice 
of the overseer without, he suspended his work, and 
listening attentively, became a party to their councils. 
They agreed that they would delay the execution of their 
project until the next day, as it was then late. They 
supposed they would have no difficulty in apprehending 
their intended victim, as, knowing himself innocent of the 
theft, he would readily consent to go with the constable to 
a justice of the peace, to have the charge examined. That 
night, however, about midnight, my grand-father silently 
repaired to the cabin of my father, a distance of about 
three miles, aroused him from his sleep, made him acquain- 
ted with the extent of his danger, gave him a bottle of 
cider and a small bag of parched corn, and then praying 
to the God of his native country to protect his son, 
enjoined him to fly from the destruction which awaited 
him. In the morning, the Georgian could not find his 
newly purchased slave, who was never seen or heard of in 



16 THE ADVENTURES OF 

Maryland from that day. He probably had prudence 
enough to conceal himself in the day and travel only at 
night, by this means making his way slowly up the coun- 
try, between the Patapsco and Patuxent, until he was able 
to strike across to the North and reach Pennsylvania. 

After the flight of my father, my grand-father was the 
only person left in Maryland, with whom I could claim 
kindred. He was at that time an old man ; as he himself 
said, nearly eighty years of age, and he manifested towards 
me all the fondness which a person so far advanced in life 
could be expected to feel for a child. As he was too feeble 
to perform much hard labor, his master did not require 
him either to live or to work with the common field hands, 
who were employed through the greater part of the year 
in cultivating tobacco, and preparing it for market, that 
being the staple crop of all the lower part of the western 
shore of Maryland at that time. Indeed, old Ben, as my 
grand-father was called, had always expressed great 
contempt for his fellow slaves, they being, as he said, a 
mean and vulgar race, quite beneath his rank and the 
dignity of his former station. He had, during all the 
time that I knew him, a small cabin of his own, with 
about half an acre of ground attached to it, which he 
cultivated on his own account, and from which he drew a 
large portion of his subsistence. He entertained strange 
and peculiar notions of religion, and prayed every night, 
though he said he ought to pray oftener ; but that his G od 
would excuse him for the non-performance of this duty, in 
consideration of his being a slave, and compelled to devote 
his whole time to the service of his master. He never 
went to Church or meeting, and held, that the religion of 
this country vfas altogether false, and indeed, no religion 
at all; being the mere invention of priests and crafty men, 



(JIIAKLES BALL. IT 

who hoped thereby to proUt through the ignorance and 
credulity of the multitude. In support of this opinion, 
he maintained that there could only he one true standard 
of faith, which was the case in his country, where all the 
people worshipped together in the same assembly, and 
believed in the same doctrines which had been of old time, 
delivered by the true God to a holy man, who was taken 
up into heaven for that purpose, and after he had received 
the divine communication, had returned to earth,, and 
spent a hundred 3'ears in preaching and imparting the 
truth which had been revealed to him, to mankind. This 
inspired man resided in some country, at a great distance 
from that of my grand-father, but had come there, across 
a part of the sea, in company with an angel ; and instruc- 
ted the people in the mysteries of the true faith, which 
had ever since been preserved in its utmost purity, by the 
descendants of those who received it, through a period of 
more than ten thousand years. My grand-father said, 
that the tenets of this religion were so plain, and self- 
evident, that any one could understand them, without any 
other instruction, than the reading of a small book, a copy 
of which was kept in every family, and which contained 
all the rules, both of faith and practice, necessary for any 
one to know or exercise. No one was permitted to 
expound or explain this book, as it was known to be the 
oracle of the true God, and it was held impious for any 
person to give a construction to his words, different from 
that which was so palpably and manifestly expressed on 
the face of the book. 

This book, was likewise written in such plain and intel- 
ligible language, that only one meaning could possibly be 
given to any one part of it ; and was withal so compendi- 
ous and brief, that people could with very little labor, 



18 THE ADVENTURES OF 

commit the whole of its precepts to memory. The priests 
had at several times attempted to publish commentaries 
and glossaries upon this book; but as often as this had 
been attempted, the perpetrators had been tried, found 
guilty of conspiring to con-upt the public morals, and 
then banished from the country. People who were dispo- 
sed to worship publicly, convened together in summer, 
under the boughs of a large tree, and the eldest person 
present read the inspired book from beginning to end, 
which could be done in two hours, at most. Sometimes 
a priest was employed to read the book, but he was never, 
by any means, allowed to add any observations of his own, 
as it would have been considered absurd as well as very 
wicked, for a mere man to attempt to add to, alter, amend, 
or in any manner give a coloring to the revealed word of 
God. In winter, when it rained constantly, the worship- 
pers met under the roof of a house covered with the leaves 
of a certain tree, which grew in great abundance on the 
margins of all the streams. 

The law imposed no penalties on those who did not 
profess to believe the contents of the sacred book ; but 
those who did not live according to its rules were deemed 
bad subjects, and were compelled to become soldiers, as 
being fit only for a life of blood-shed and cruelty. 

The book inculcated no particular form of belief, and 
left men free to profess what faith they pleased; but its 
principles of morality were extremely rigid and uncompro- 
mising. Love of country, charity and social affection 
were the chief points of dut}^ enjoined by it. Lying and 
drunkenness were strictly prohibited, and those guilty of 
these vices, were severely punished. Cruelty was placed 
in the same rank of crimes ; but the mode of punishment 
was left entirely to the civil lawgiver. The book required 



' CHARLES BALL. 19 

neither fastings, penances, nor pilgrimages; but tenderness 
to wives and children, was one of its most positive injunc- 
tions. 



CHAPTER II. 

The name of the man who purchased me at the vendue, 
and became my master, was John Cox; but he was gene- 
rally called Jack Cox. He was a man of kindly feelings 
towards his family, and treated his slaves, of whom he 
had several besides me, with humanity. He permitted 
my grandfather to visit me as often as he pleased, and 
allowed him sometimes to carry me to his own cabin, 
which stood in a lonely place, at the head of a deep 
hollow, almost surrounded by a thicket of cedar trees, 
which had grown up in a worn out and abandoned tobacco 
field. My master gave me better clothes than the little 
slaves of my age generally received in Calvert, and often 
told me that he intended to make me his waiter, and that 
if I behaved well I should become his overseer in time. 
These stations of waiter and overseer appeared to me the 
highest points of honor and greatness in the whole world, 
and had not circumstances frustrated my master's plans, 
as well as my own views, I should probably have been 
living at this time in a cabin on the corner of some tobacco 
plantation. 

Fortune had decreed otherwise. When I was about 
twelve years old, my master. Jack Cox, died of a disease 
which had long confined him to the house. I was sorry 
for the death of my master, who had always been kind to 
me; and I soon discovered that I had good cause to regret 



20 THE ADVENTURES OF 

his departure from thia world. He had several children 
at the time of his death, who were all young; the oldest 
being about my own age. The father of my late master, 
who was still living, became the administrator of his estate, 
and took possession of his property, and amongst the rest, 
of myself. This old gentleman treated me with the 
greatest severity, and compelled me to work very hard on 
his plantation for several years, until I suppose I must 
have been near or quite twenty years of age. As I was 
always very obedient, and ready to execute all his orders, 
I did not receive much whipping, but suffered greatly for 
want of sufficient and proper food. My master allowed 
his slaves a peck of corn, each, per week, throughout the 
year; and this we had to grind into meal in a handmill, 
for ourselves. AVe had a tolerable supply of meat for a 
short time, about the month of December, when he killed 
his hogs. After ^that season we had meat once a week, 
unless bacon became scarce, which very often happened, 
in which case we had no meat at all. However, as we 
fortunately lived near both the Patuxent river and the 
Chesapeake Bay, we had abundance of fish in the spring, 
and as long as the fishing season continued. After that 
period each slave received, in addition to his allowance of 
corn, one salt herring every day. 

My master gave me one pair of shoes, one pair of 
stockings, one hat, one jacket of coarse cloth, two coarse 
shirts, and two pair of trousers, yearly. He allowed me 
no other clothes. In winter the time I often suffered 
very much from cold ; as I had to drive the team of oxen 
which hauled the tobacco to market,and frequently did 
not get home until late at night, the distance being con- 
siderable, and my cattle travelling very slow. 

One Saturday evening, when I came home from the 



CHARLES BALL. 21 

corn-field, my maater told me that he had hired me out for 
a year at the city of Washington, and that I would have to 
live at the Navy Yard. On the New- Year's day following, 
which happened about two weeks . afterwards, my master 
set forward for Washington, on horseback, and ordered me 
to accompany him on foot. 

It was night when we arrived at the Navy Yard, and 
everything appeared very strange to me. I was told by a 
gentleman who had epaulets on his shoulders, that I must 
go on board a large ship which lay in the river. He at 
the same time told a boy to show me the way. This ship 
proved to be the Congress frigate, and I was told that I 
had been brought here to cook for the people belonging to 
her. In the course of a few days the duties of my station 
became quite familiar to me; and in the enjoyment of a 
profusion of excellent provisions, I felt very happy. I 
strove by all means to please the officers and gentlemen 
who came on board, and in this I soon found my account. 
One gave me a half-worn coat, another an old shirt, and a 
third a cast off waiscoat and pantaloons. Some presented 
me with small sums of money, and in this way I soon 
found myself well clothed, and with more than a dollar in 
my pocket. My duties, though constant, were not bur- 
thensome ; and I was permitted to spend Sunday afternoon 
in my own way. I generally went up into the city to see 
the new and splendid buildings ; and often walked as far 
as G-eorgetown, and made many new acquaintances among 
the slaves, and frequently saw large numbers of people of 
my color chained together in long trains, and driven off 
towards the south. At that time the slave trade was not 
regarded with so much indignation and disgust as it is 
now. It was a rare thing to hear of a person of color 
running away, and escaping altogether from his master ; 




22 THE ADVENTURES OF 

my father being the only one within my knowledge, who 
had, before this time, obtained his liberty in this manner, 
in Calvert county; and, as before stated, I never heard 
what became of him after his flight. 

I remained on board the Congress, and about the Navy 
Yard, two years, and was quite satisfied with my lot, until 
about three months before the expiration of this period, 
when it happenned that a schooner, loaded with iron and 
other materials for the use of the Navy Yard, arrived 
from Philadelphia. She came and lay close by the 
Congress, to discharge her cargo; and amongst the crew 
I observed a black man, with whom, in the course of 
a day or two, I became acquainted. He told me he was 
free, and lived in Philadelphia, where he kept a house of 
entertainment for sailors, which he said was attended to in 
his absence by his wife. 

His description of Philadelphia, and of the liberty 
enjoyed there by the black people, so charmed my imagi- 
nation, that I determined to devise some plan of escaping 
from the Congress, and making my way to the north. I 
communicated my designs to my new friend, who promised 
to give me his aid. We agreed that the night before the 
schooner was to sail, I should be concealed in the hold, 
amongst a parcel of loose tobacco, which he said the captain 
had undertaken to carry to Philadelphia, The sailing of the 
schooner was delayed longer than we expected; and finally, 
her captain purchased a cargo of flour in Georgetown, and 
sailed for the "West Indies. Whilst I was anxiously 
awaiting some other opportunity of making my way to 
Philadelphia, (the idea of crossing the country to the 
western part of Pennsylvania never entered my mind,) 
New Year's day came, and with it my old master from 
Calvert, accompanied by a gentleman named Gibson, to 



CHARLES BALL. 28 

wliom he said he had sold me, and to whom he delivered 
me over in the Navy Yard. We all three set out that 
same evening for Calvert, and reached the residence of 
my new master the next day. Here I was informed that 
I had become the subject of a lawsuit. My new master 
claimed me under his purchase from old Mr. Cox; and 
another gentleman of the neighborhood, named Levin 
Ballard, had bought me of the children of my former 
master. Jack Cox. This suit continued in the courts of 
Calvert county more than two years; but was finally deci- 
ded in favor of him who had bought me of the children. 

I went home with my master, Mr. Gibson, who was a 
farmer, and with w^hom I lived three years. Soon after I 
came to live with Mr. Gibson, I married a girl of color, 
named Judah, the slave of a gentleman by the name of 
Symmes, who resided in the same neighborhood. I was 
at the house of Mr. Symmes every week; and became as 
well acquainted with him and his family, as I was with 
my master. 

Mr. Symmes also married a wife about the time I did. 
The lady whom he married lived nf^ar Philadelphia; and 
when she first came to live in Maryland, she refused to be 
served by a black chambermaid, but employed a white 
girl, the daughter of a poor man who lived near. The 
lady was reported to be very wealthy, and brought a large 
trunk full of plate and other valuable articles. This 
trunk was so heavy that I could scarce carry it, and it 
impressed my mind with the jcfea pf great riches in the 
owner, at that time. After soinU* time Mrs. Symmes 
dismissed her white chambermaid, and placed my wife in 
that situation, which I regarded as a fortunate circum- 
stance, as it insured her good food, and at least one good 
suit of clothes. 



24 . THE ADVENTURES OP 

The SymmeB family was one of the most ancient in 
Maryland, and had been a long time resident in Calvert 
county. The grounds had been laid out, and all the 
improvements projected about the family abode, in a style 
of much magnificence, according to the custom of the old 
aristocracy of Maryland and Virginia. 

Appendant to the domicile, and at no great distance 
from the house, was a family vault, built of brick, in 
which reposed the occupants of the estate, who had lived 
there for many previous generations. This vault had not 
been opened or entered for fifteen years previous to the 
time of which I speak; but it so happened, that at this 
period a young man, a distant relation of the family, died, 
having requested on his death-bed, that he might be 
buried in this family resting place. When I came on 
Saturday evening to see my wife and child, Mr. Symmes 
desired me, as I was older than any of his black men, to 
take an iron pick and go and open the vault, which I 
accordingly did, by cutting away the mortar and removing 
a few bricks from one side of the building; but I could 
not remove more than three or four bricks before I was 
obliged, by the horrid effluvia which issued at the aperture, 
to retire. It was the most deadly and sickening scent 
that I have ever smelled, and I could not return to com- 
plete the work until after the sun had risen the next day, 
when I pulled down so much of one of the side walls, as to 
permit persons to walk in upright. I then went in alone, 
and examined this ho&e of the dead; and surely no 
picture could more srf&ngly and vividly depict the empti- 
ness of all earthly vanity, and the nothingness of human 
pride. Dispersed over the floor lay the fragments of more 
than twenty human skeletons, ea^h in the place where it 
had been deposited by the idle tenderness of surviving 



CHAllLES BALL. 25 

friends. In some cases nothing remained but the hair 
and the larger bones; whilst in several the form of the 
coffin was yet visible, with all the bones resting in their 
proper places. One coffin, the sides of which were yet 
standing, the lid only having decayed and partly fallen in, 
so as to disclose the contents of this narrow cell, presented 
a peculiarly moving spectale. Upon the centre of the lid 
was a large silver plate, , and the head and foot were 
adorned with silver stars. The nails which had united 
the parts of the coffin had also silver heads. Within lay 
the skeletons of a mother and her infant child, in slum- 
bers only to be broken by the peal of the last trumpet. 
The bones of the infant lay upon the breast of the mother, 
where the hands of aiFection had shrouded them. The 
ribs of the parent had fallen down, and rested on the 
back bone. Many gold rings were about the bones of the 
fingers, brilliant ear-rings lay beneath where the ears 
had been ; and a glittering gold chain encircled the ghastly 
and haggard vertebras of a once beautiful neck. The 
shroud and flesh had disappeared, but the hair of the 
mother appeared strong and fresh. Even the silken locks 
of the infant were still preserved. Behold the end of 
youth and beauty, and of all that is lovely in life ! The 
coffin was so much decayed that it could not be removed. 
A thick and dismal vapor hung embodied from the roof 
and walls of this charnel house, in appearance somewhat 
like a mass of dark 'cobwebs ; but which was impalpable 
to the touch, and when stirred by the hand vanished 
away. On the second day we deposited with his kindred 
the corpse of the young man, and at night I again care- 
fully closed up the breach which I had made in the 
walls of this dwelling-plaoe of the dead, 

C* . '' 



26 'IHE ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Some short time after my wife became chambermaid 
to her mistress, it was my misfortune to change masters 
once more. Levin Ballard, who as before stated, had 
purchased me of the children of my former master, Jack 
Cox , was successful in his la^t suit with Mr. Gibson ; the 
object of which was to determine the right of property in 
me ; and one day, whilst I was at work in the corn field, 
Mr. Ballard came and told me I was his property ; asking 
me at the same time if I was willing to go with him. I 
told him, I was not willing to go; but, that if I belonged 
to him I knew I must. We then went to the house, and 
Mr. Gibson, not being at home, Mrs. Gibson told me I 
must go with Mr. Ballard. 

I accordingly went with him, determining to serve him 
obediently and faithfully. I remained in his service 
almost three years, and as he lived near the residence of 
my wife's master, my former mode of life was not materi- 
ally changed, by this change of home. 

Mrs. Symmes spent much of her time in exchanging 
visits with the families of the other large planters, both 
in Calvert, and the neighboring counties ; and through my 
wife I became acquainted with the private family history 
of many of the principal persons in Maryland. 

There was a great proprietor, who resided in another 
county, who owned several hundred slaves; and who 
permitted them to beg of travellers on the highway. This 
same gentleman had several daughters, and according to 
the custom of the time, kept what they called open house ; 
that is, his house was free to all persons of genteel 
appearance, who chose to vi«it it. The young ladies were 



CHARLES BALL. 27 

supposed to be the greatest fortunes in the country, were 
reputed beautiful, and consequently were greatly admired. 

Two gentlemen, who were lovers of these girls, desi- 
rous of amusing their mistresses, invited a young man, 
whose standing in society they supposed to be beneath 
theirs, to go with them to the manor, as it was called. 
When there, they endeavored to make him an object of 
ridicule, in presence of the ladies ; but he so well acquitted 
himself, and manifested such superior wit and talents, that 
one of the young ladies fell in love with him, and soon 
after, wrote him a letter, which led to their marriage. 
His two pretended friends were never afterwards counte- 
nanced by the family, as gentlemen of honor; but the 
fortunate husband avenged himself of his heartless com- 
panions, by inviting them to his wedding, and exposing 
them to the observation of the vast assemblage of fash- 
ionable people, who always attended a marriage, in the 
family of a great planter. 

The two gentlemen, who had been thus made to fall 
into the pit that they had dug for another, were so much 
chagrined at the issue of the adventure, that one soon left 
Maryland ; and the other became a common drunkard, and 
died a few years afterwards. 

I have also seen a young lady of great beauty, and very 
large fortune, who formed an attachment to a black man, 
the lover of her chambermaid. The mistress prevailed on 
the maid to surrender her intended husband; and this 
extraordinary intercourse was persevered in, and the secret 
inviolably kept by the black girl, until after the marriage 
of her mistress with a lawyer of the Maryland bar. Nor 
is it supposed, that the matter would ever have become 
public, but for the very imprudent conduct of the lady 
herself; who, indulged, after her marriage, in the irregu- 



28 THE APVENTUREB OF 

larities of her former life. Her husband at length discov- 
ered the double disgrace that he had brought upon himself; 
and expelled her from his house. He afterwards procured 
a divorce by act of the Legislature; and his wife became 
a wandering vagabond. 

When I first saw her, she was riding in a beautiful 
carriage^ drawn by two fine gray horses, and escorted by 
crowds of rival young men, who sued for her favor. 
When I last saw her, she was in a state of brutal intoxi- 
cation — covered only with rags and filth — supplicating 
shelter for the night, in the miserable cabin of a free negro. 
She wandered about Maryland many years, the associate 
only of people of color, and the very dregs of the white 
population; whilst her husband, and a son of their 
marriage, were received into the best and most fashionable 
circles of society, both in Baltimore, and on either side of 
the Chesapeake Bay. There are persons now living, who 
can name all the individuals, to whom I have referred in 
these brief allusions to the failings of the great. 

My change of masters, realized all the evil apprehen- 
sions which I had entertained. I found Mr. Ballard, 
sullen and crabbed in his temper, and always prone to find 
fault with my conduct — no matter how hard I had labored, 
or how careful I was to fulfil all his orders, and obey his 
most unreasonable commands. Yet, it so happened, that 
he never beat me, for which, I was altogether indebted to 
the good character, for industry, sobriety and humility, 
which I had established in the neighborhood. I think he 
was ashamed to abuse me, lest he should suffer in the 
good opinion of the public; for he often fell into the most 
violent fits of anger against mc, and overwhelmed me with 
coarse and abusive language. . He did not give me clothes 
enough to keep me warm in winter, and compelled me to 



CHARLES BALL. 29 

work iu the woods, when there was deep snow on the 
ground, bj which I suffered very much. I had deter- 
mined at last to speak to him to sell me to some person in 
the neighborhood, so that I might still be near my wife 
and children — but a different fate awaited me. 

My master kept a store at a small village on the bank 

of the Patuxent river, called B , although he resided 

at some distance on a farm. One morning he rose early, 
and ordered me to take a yoke of oxen and go to the 
village, to bring home a cart which was there, saying he 
would follow me. He arrived at the village soon after I 
did, and took his breakfast with his storekeeper. He then 
told me to come into the house and get my breakfast. 
Whilst I was eating in the kitchen, I observed him talking 
earnestly, but lowly, to a stranger near the kitchen door. 
I soon after went out, and hitched my oxen to the cart, 
and was about to drive off, when several men came round 
about me, and amongst them the stranger whom I had 
seen speaking with my master. This man came up to me, 
and seizing me by the collar, shook me violently, saying 
I was his property, and must go with him to Georgia. 
At the sound of these words, the thoughts of my wife and 
children rushed across my mind, and my heart died away 
within me. I saw and knew that my case was hopeless, 
and that resistance was vain, as there were near twenty 
persons present, all of whom were ready to assist the man 
by whom I was kidnapped. I felt incapable of weeping 
or speaking, and in my despair I laughed loudly. My 
purchaser ordered me to cross my hands behind, which 
were quickly bound with a strong cord ; and he then told 
me that we must set out that very day for the South. I 
asked if I could not be allowed to go to see my wife and 
children, or if this could not be permitted, if they might 



30 TUB ADVENTUPvJES OF 

not have leave to come to see me; but was told that I 
would be able to get another wife in Georgia. 

Mj new master, whose name I did not hear, took me 
that same day across the Patuxent, where I joined fifty-one 
other slaves, whom he had bought in Maryland. Thirty- 
two of these were men, and nineteen were women. The 
women were merely tied together with a rope, about the 
size of a bed cord, which was tied like a halter round the 
neck of each ; but the men, of whom I was the stoutest 
and strongest, were very diiFerently caparisoned. A 
strong iron collar was closely fitted by means of a padlock 
round each of our necks. A chain of iron about a hun- 
dred feet in length was passed through the hasp of each 
padlock, except at the two ends, where the hasps of the 
padlocks passed through a link of the chain. In addition 
to this, we were handcuffed in pairs, with iron staples and 
bolts, with a short chain about a foot long uniting the 
haudcuffs and their wearers iu pairs. In this manner, we 
were chained alternately by the right and left hand ; and 
the poor man to whom I was thus ironed wept like an 
infant when the blacksmith with his heavy hammer, fas- 
tened the ends of the bolts that kept the staples from 
slipping from oiu' arms. For my own part, I felt indif- 
ferent to my fate. It appeared to me that the worst had 
come that would come, and that no change of fortune 
could harm me. 

After we were all chained and handcuffed together, we 
sat down upon the ground; and here reflecting upon the 
sad reverse of fortune that had so suddenly overtaken 
me, and the dreadful sufferings which awaited me, I 
became weary of life,' and bitterly execrated the day I 
was born. It seemed that I was destined by fat€ to drink 
the cup of sorrow to the very dregs, and that I should 



CHARLES BALL. 81 

find no respite from misery but in tlie grave. I longed to 
die, and escape from the hands of my tormentors; but 
even the wretched privilege of destroying myself was 
denied me; for I could not shake oif my chains, nor move 
a yard without the consent of my master. Reflecting in 
silence upon my forlorn condition, I at length concluded, 
that as things could not become worse, and as the life of 
man is but a continued round of changes, they must of 
necessity take a turn in my favor, at some future day. " I 
found_^ relief in this vague and indefinite hope ; and when 
we received orders to go on board the scow, which was to 
transport us over the Patuxent, I marched down to the 
water with a firmness of purpose of which I did not 
believe myself capable, a few minutes before. 

We were soon on the south side of the river, and taking 
up our line of march, we travelled about five miles that 
evening, and stopped for the night at one of those miser- 
able public houses, so frequent in the lower parts of 
Maryland and Virginia, called ^' ordinaries.^' 

Our master ordered a pot of mush to be made for our 
supper; after despatching which, we all lay down on the 
naked floor to sleep in our handcuiTs and chains. The 
women, my fellow slaves, lay on one side of the room, 
and the men who were chained with me, occupied the 
other. I slept but little this night, which I passed in 
thinking of my wife and little children, whom I could not 
hope ever to see again. I also thought of my grandfather, 
and of the long nights I had passed with him, listening 
to his narratives of the scenes through which he had 
passed in Africa. I at length fell asleep, but was dis- 
tressed by painful dreams. My wife and children ap- 
peared to be weeping and lamenting my calamity; and 
beseeching and imploring my master, on their knees, not 



'6-2 THE ADVENTURES OF 

to curry me away from them. My little boy came and 
begged me not to go and leave him, and endeavored, as I 
thought, with his little hands to break the fetters that 
bound me. I awoke in agony, and cursed my existence. 
I could not pray, for the measure of my woes seemed to 
be full, and I felt as if there was no mercy in heaven, 
nor compassion on earth, for a man who was born a slave. 
Day at length came, and with the dawn, we resumed our 
journey towards the Potomac, As we passed along the 
road, I saw the slaves at work in the corn and tobacco 
fields. I knew they toiled hard and lacked food; but they 
were not, like me, dragged in chains from their wives, 
children and friends. Compared with me they were the 
happiest of mortals. I almost envied them their blessed 
lot. 

Before night we crossed the Potomac, at Hoe's Ferry, 
and bade farewell to Maryland. At night we stopped at 
the house of a poor gentleman, at least he appeared to 
wish my master to consider him a gentleman ; and he had 
no difficulty in establishing his claim to poverty. He 
lived at the side of the road, in a framed house, that had 
never been plastered within, the weather-boards being the 
only wall. He had about fifty acres of land enclosed by 
a fence, the remains of a farm which had once covered 
two or three hundred acres; but the cedar bushes had 
encroached upon all sides, until the cultivation had been 
confined to its present limits. The land was the very 
picture of sterility, and there was neither barn nor stable 
on the place. The owner was ragged and his wife and 
chiMren were in a similar plight. It was with difficulty 
that we obtained a bushel of corn which our master 
ordered us to parch at a fire made in the yard, and to eat 
for our supper. Even this miserable family possessed two 



CHARLES BALL. 



slaves, half-starved, half-naked wretches, whose appeal anc^f 
bespoke them familiar with hunger, and victims of the 
lash; but there was one pang which they had not known; 
they had not been chained and driven from their parents 
or children into hopeless exile. 

We left this place early in the morning, and directed 
our course toward the southwest; our master riding beside 
us, and hastening our march, sometimes by words of 
encouragement, and sometimes by threats of punishment. 
The women took their place in the rear of our line. Vv e 
halted about nine o'clock for breakfast, and received as 
much corn bread as we could eat, together with a plate of 
boiled herring, and about three pounds of pork amongst 
us. Before we left this place, I was removed from near 
the middle of the chain, and placed at the front end of it; 
so that I now became the leader of the file, and held this 
post of honor until our irons were taken from us, near 
the town of Columbia, in South Carolina. We continued 
our route, this day, along the high road between the 
Potomac and Kappahannock ; and I several times saw 
each of those rivers before night. Our master gave us no 
dinner to-da}^, but we halted a short time before sun-down^ 
and got as much corn mush and sour milk as we could eat 
for supper. It was now the beginning of the month of 
May, and the weather, in the fine climate of Virginia, was 
very mild and pleasant; so that our master vfas not 
obliged to provide us with fire at night. 

From this time, to the end of our journey southward, 
we all slept promiscuously, men and women, on the noor? 
of such houses as we chanced to stop at. We had no 
clothes except those we wore, and a few blankets; the 
larger portion of our gang being in rags at the time we 
crossed the Potomac. Two of the women were preonaut; 

D ' - ' 



84 THE ADVEJfTUREB OF 

the ouc far advanced; and elie already coin plained of 
inabilicv t: keep pace with our march; but her complaints 
were dirrcgarded. Wc crossed the Rappahannock at Port 
Hoyal, and afterwards passed through the village of Bow- 
ling Green, a place with which I became better acquainted 
in after times; but -vshich now presented the quiet so 
common to all small towns in Virginia, and indeed in all the 
Fouthem states. Time did not reconcile me to my chains, 
but it made me familiar with them; and in a few days 
the horrible sensations attendant upon my cruel separation 
from my wife and children, in some measure subsided; 
and I began to reflect upon my present hopeless and 
desperate situation, with some degree of calmness, hoping 
that I might be able to devise some means of escaping 
from the hands of my new master, who seemed to plac€ 
particular value on mo, as I could perceive from his con- 
versation with such peifcons as vre happened to meet at 
r\\T resting places. I heard him tell a tavern-keeper 
where we halted, that if he had me in Georgia, he could 
get five hundred dollars for me; but he had bought me 
for his brother, and he believed he would not sell me ; 
but in this he afterwards changed his opinion. 1 examined 
every part of our long chain, to see if there might not be 
fcmo place in it at which it could be severed; but found 
it so completely secured, that with any means in my 
power its separation waa impossible. From this timo I 
endeavore^l to Ix'guile my sorrows, by examining the state 
of the country through which we were travelling, and 
observing the condition of my fellow slaves, on the plan- 
tations along the high road upon which we sojourned. 

We all had as much corn bread as we could eat. This 
was procured by our owner at the small dram shops, or 
crchuanes, at whirh we usually tarried all night. In 



CHABI-S3 BALL. 35 

addition to tkis, we gsnsrally received a saJt herring, 
though not everi/ day. On Sunday^ our ma3t^ bought as 
much bacon as, when divided amongst ns, gave about a 
quarter of a pound to each person in our gang. 

In Calvert county, where I was born, the practice 
amongst slave-holders, was to allow each slave one peck of 
corn weekly, which was measured out every Monday 
morning; at the same time each one receiving seven salt 
herrings. This formed the week's provision, and the 
master who did not give it, Was called a hard master j 
whilst those who allowed their people any thing more, 
were deemed kind and indulgent. It often happened that 
the stock of salt herrings laid up l)y a master in the spring, 
was not sufficient to enable him to continue this rate of 
distribution through the year; and when the fish failed, 
nothing more than the corn was dealt out. On the other 
hand, some planters, who had large stocks of cattle, and 
many cows, kept the sour milk, after all the cream had 
been skimmed from it, and made a daily distribution of 
this amongst the working slaves. Some who had large 
apple orchards, gave their slaves a pint of cider each, per 
day, through the autumn. It sometimes happened too, in 
the lower counties of Maryland, that there was an allow- 
ance of pork made to the slaves one day in each week ; 
though on some estates this did not take place more than 
once in a month. This allowance of meat was disposed of 
in such a manner, as to permit each slave to get a slic-e; 
very often amounting to half a pound. The slaves were 
also permitted to work for themselves at night, and on 
Sunday If they chose to fish, they had the privilege of 
selling whatever they caught. Some expert fif^^te^men 
caught and sold as many fish and oysters, as enabled them 
to buy coflfee, sugar, and other "luxuries for their wivos, 



nil. jn»vf:N'ii;KE> of 

l^eaides keej>ing tbomsclves and their families in Sunday/ 
clothes; for the masters in Maryland^ only allowed the 
men one wool hat, one pair of shoes, two shirts, two pair 
<'f i.ou&crs— one pair of tow cloth, and one of woolen — 
and one woolen jacket in the year. The women were 
furnished in proportion. All other clothes, they had to 
provide for themselves. Children not able to work in the 
field, were not provided with clothes at all, by their 
masters. It is, however, honorable to the Maryland 
flave-holders, that they never permit women to go naked 
in the fields or about the house; and if the men are 'in- 
duptrious and emiiloy (hemschcs ueU on Sundays and 
holt/days, they can always keep themselves in comfortable 
clothes. 

In Virginia, it appeared to me that the slaves were 
I .ore rigorou.^ly treated than they were in my native place. 
If is easy to tell a man of color who is poorly fed, from 
ono who is well supplied with food, by his personal 
iipi>camnce. A half starved negro is a miserable looking 
creature. His skin becomes dry, and appears to be sjtiiuk- 
lodDvcrwith whitish husks, or scales; the glossiness of 
his face vanishes; his hair loses its color, becomes dry, 
'Hid when stricken with a rod, the dust flies from it. 
'J'hese signs of bad treatment I perceived to be very com- 
mon in Virginia ; many young girls who would have been 
beautiful, if they hud been allowed enough to eat, had lost 
•dl their prettiness through mere starvation; their fine 
glossy hair had become of a reddish color, and stood out 
':und thjir head.s, like long brown wool, 



CKAKLl^S BALL. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Our master at first expressed a determination to pass 
through the city of Richmond; hut for some reason, 
which he did not make known to uS; he changed his mind, 
and drove us up the country, crossing the Matepony, 
North Anna and South Anna rivers. For several days 
we traversed a region, which had been deserted by the 
occupants — being no longer worth culture — and immense 
thickets of young red cedars now occupied the fields, in 
digging of which, thousands of wretched slaves, had worn 
out their lives in the service of merciless masters. 

In some places these cedar thickets, as they are called, 
continued for three or four miles together, without a house 
to enliven the scene, and with scarcely an original forest 
tree, to give variety to the landscape. One day in the 
midst of a wilderness of cedars, we came in view of a 
stately and venerable looking brick edifice, which on 
nearer inspection, I discovered to be a church. On 
approaching it, our driver ordered us to halt, and dismoun- 
ting from/his horse, tied him to a young cedar tree, and 
sat himself down upon a flat tombstone, near the \#st end 
of the church, ordering us at the same time, to sit down 
among the grass and rest ourselves. The grave-yard in 
which we were now encamped, occupied about two acres of 
ground which was surrounded by a square brick wall 
much dilapidated, and in many places broken down nearly 
to the ground. The gates were decayed and gone; but 
the gate ways were yet distinct. The whole enclosure 
was thickly strewed with graves, many of which were 
surmounted by beautiful marble slabs ; others were desig- 
nated by plain head and foot stones; whilst far the larger 



as THL Ab VENTURES OF 

number only betrayed the resting places of their sleeping 
tenants, by the simple mounds of clay, which still main- 
tained their elevation above the level of the surrounding 
earth. From the appearance of this burial place, I sup- 
poFC no one had been interred there for thirty years. 
Several hollies, planted by the hands of friendship, grew 
amongst the hillocks, and numerous flowering shrubs and 
bushes, now in bloom, gave fragrance to the air of the 
place. The cedars which covered the surrounding plain, 
with a forest impervious to the eye, had respected this 
lonely dwelling of the dead, and not one was to be seen 
within the walls. 

Though it \vas now the meridian of a day in spring, the 
stillness of midnight pervaded the environs of this deser- 
ted and forsaken temple; the pulpit, pews, and gallery of 
which, were still standing, as I could perceive through the 
broken door wa}', and mliintained a freshness and newness 
of appearance, little according with the time worn aspect of 
the exterior scenery. 

It was manifest that this earthly dwelling of the Most 
High, now so desolate and ruinous, was once the resort of 
n congregation of people, gay, fashionable, and proud; 
who l^d disappeared from the land, leaving only this 
fallen edifice, and these gra.ssy tombs, as the mementos of 
their existence. They had passed away, even as did the 
wandering red men, who roamed through the lofty oak 
forests which once shaded the ground where we now lay. 
As I sat musing upon the desolation that surrounded me, 
my mind turned to the cause which had converted a 
former rich and populous country, into the solitude of a 
ili-.vtc(l wildorne.'s. 

'i'ho -rouml ...vcr wl.idi we h.id travelled since we crossed 
the I'otomnc, had ycnorally been a strong reddish clav, 



CHARLES BALL. 89 

with an admixture of sand, and was of the same quality 
with the soil of the counties of Chester, Montgomery and 
Bucks, in Pennsylvania. It had originally been highly 
fertile and productive, and had it been properly treated, 
would doubtlessly have continued to yield abundant and 
prolific crops ; but the gentlemen who became the early 
proprietors of this fine region, supplied themselves with 
slaves from Africa, cleared large plantations of many 
thousands of acres — cultivated tobacco — and became sud- 
denly wealthy; built spacious houses and numerous 
churches, such as this ; but regardless of their true inter- 
est, they valued their lands less than their slaves ', exhaus- 
ted the kindly soil, by unremitting crops of tobacco, 
declined in their circumstances, and finally grew poor, 
upon the very fields, that had formerly made their pos- 
sessors rich; abandoned one portion after another, as not 
worth planting any longer ; and, pinched by necessity, at 
last sold their slaves to Georgian planters, to procure a 
subsistence ; and when all was gone, took refuge in the 
wilds of Kentucky; again to act the same melancholy 
drama ; leaving their native land to desolation and poverty. 
The churches then followed the fate of their builders. 
The revolutionary war deprived the parsons of their legal 
support; and they fled from the altar which no longer 
maintained them. Virginia has become poor by the folly 
and wickedness of slavery, and dearly has she paid for the 
anguish and sufferings she has inflicted upon our injured, 
degraded and fallen race. 

After remaining about two hours at this place, we again 
resumed our march ; and wretched as I was, I felt relieved 
when we departed from this abode of the spirit of ruin. 

We continued our course up the country westward, for 
two or three dav^, moving at a slow pace, and at Ipngth 



40 Tin: AL VENTURES OF 

luruiug Bouth, crossed James river, at a place about thirty 
miles above Richmond, as I understood at the time. We 
continued our journey from day to day, in a course, and 
by roads, which appeared to me to bear generally abou^ 
South-west, for more than four weeks, in which time wf, 
entered South Carolina, and in this state^ near Camden, I 
first saw a field of cotton in bloom. 

I had endeavored through the whole journey, from the 
time we crossed the Rappahannock river, to make such 
observations upon the country, the roads we travelled, and 
the towns we passed through, as would enable me, at some 
futuro period, to find my way back to Maryland. I was 
particularly careful to note the names of the towns and 
villages through which we passed, and to fix on my mem- 
ory, not only the names of all the rivers, but also the posi- 
tion and bearing of the ferries over those streams. 

After leaving James river, I assumed an air of cheerful- 
ness and even gaiety — I often told stories to my master of 
the manners and customs of the Maryland planters, and 
asked him, if the same usages prevailed in Georgia, 
whither we were destined. By repeatedly naming the 
rivers that wo came to, and in the order which wo had 
reached them, I was able at my arrival in Georgia, to 
repeat the name of every considerable stream from the 
Potomac to the Savannah, and to tell at what ferries wo 
had crossed them. I afterwards found this knowledge of 
great service to me. Indeed, without it, I should never 
have been able to extricate myself from slavery. 

After leaving James river, our road led us south-west, 
through that region of country, which in Virginia and 
>ho Carolinaa, they call tlie upper country. It lies 
between the head of the tides in the great rivers, and the 
lower raiior.,. of ihe Allegheny Mountains. I had, at that 



CHARLES BALL, 41 

time, never seen a country cultivated by the labor of 
freemen, and consequently, was not able to institute any 
comparison between the Southern plantations and the 
farms in Pennsylvania, the fields of which are ploughed 
and reaped by the hands of their owners ; but my recol- 
lection of the general aspect of upper Virginia and Caro- 
lina is still vivid. When contrasted with the exhausted 
and depopulated portion of Virginia, lying below the head 
of th^ tide, much of which I had seen, the lands traversed 
by us in the iaonth of May and early part of June, were 
indeed fertile and beautiful; but when compared with 
what the same plantations would have been, in the hands 
of such farmers as I have seen in Pennsylvania, divided 
into farms of the proper size, the cause of the general 
poverty and weakness of the slave-holding States is at 
once seen. The plantations are large in the South, often 
including a thousand acres or more; the population is 
consequently thin, as only one white family, beside the 
overseer, ever resides on one plantation. 

As I advanced southward, even in Virginia, I perceived 
that the state of cultivation became progressively worse. 
Here, as in Maryland, the practice of the best farmers 
who cultivate grain, of planting the land every alternate 
year in corn, and sowing it in wheat or rje in the autumn 
of the same year in which the corn is planted, and whilst 
the corn is yet standing in the field, so as to get a crop 
from the same ground every year, without allowing it time 
to rest or recover, exhausts the finest soil in a few years, 
and in one or two generations reduces the proprietors to 
poverty. Some who are supposed to be very superior 
farmers, only plant the land in corn once in three years; 
sowing it in wheat or rye as in the former case ; however, 
without any covering of clover or other grass, to protect it 



42 THE ADVENTURES OF 

from the rays of the sun. The culture of tobacco prevails 
over a large portion of Virginia, especially South of 
James river, to the exclusion of almost every other crop, 
except corn. Tliis destrv.ctive crop ruins the best land in 
a short time ; and in all the lower parts of Maryland and 
Virginia, the traveller will see large old family mansions 
of wcatherbeaten and neglected appearance, standing in 
the middle of vast fields of many hundred acres, the 
fences of which have rotted away, and have been replaced 
by a wattled work in place of a fence, composed of short 
cedar stakes driven into the ground about two feet apart, 
and standing about three feet above the earth; the inter- 
valfl being filled up by branches cut from the cedar trees, 
and worked into the stakes horizontally after the manner 
of fjplits in a basket. 

Many of these fields have been abandoned altogether, 
and are overgrown by cedars, which spring up in infinite 
numbers almost as soon as a field ceases to be ploughed ; 
and furnish materials for fencing such parts of the ancient 
plantation as are still kept enclosed. In many places, the 
encloBC'l fields are only partially cultivated, all the hills 
and poorest parts being given up to the cedars and chin- 
quopiu bushes. These estates, the seats of families that 
wore once powerful, wealthy and proud, are universally 
destitute of the appearance of a barn, such as is known 
amongst the farmers of Pennsylvania. The out houses, 
■tables, gardens and offices, have fallen to decay, and the 
dwelling houte is occupied by the descendants of those 
who erected it ; still pertinaciously adhering to the halls 
of their ancestry, with a half dozen or ten slaves, the 
remains of the two or three hundred who toiled upon 
these grounds in former days. The residue of the stock 
h!i8 been distributed in marriage portions to the daughters 



CHARLES BALL. 48 

of the family gone to a distance— have been removed to 
the west by emigrating sons, or have been sold to the 
Southern traders from time to time, to procure money to 
support the dignity of the house, as the land grew poorer 
and the tobacco crop shorter, from year to year. 

Industry, enterprise and ambition have fled from these 
abodes, and sought refuge from sterility and barrenness, 
in the vales of Kentucky, or the plains of Alabama; 
whilst the jDrescnt occupants, vain of their ancestral 
monuments, and proud of an obscure name, contend with 
all the ills that poverty brings upon fallen greatness, and 
pass their lives in a contest between mimic state and 
actual penury; too ignorant of agriculture to know how 
to restore fertility to a once prolific and still substantial 
soil, and too spiritless to sell their effects and search a 
new home, under other skies. The sedge grass every 
where takes possession of the worn out fields, until it is 
supplanted by the chinquppin and the cedar. This grass 
grows in thick set bunches or stools, and no land is too 
poor for it. It rises to the height of two or three feet, 
and grows, in many places, in great profusion; is utterly 
worthless either for hay or pasturage, but affords shelter 
to numerous rabbits and countless flocks of partridges, 
and at a short distance has a beautiful appearance, as its 
elastic blue tops wave in the breeze. 

In Maryland and Virginia, although the slaves are 
treated with so much rigor, and oftentimes so much 
cruelty, I have seen instances of the greatest tenderness 
of feeling on part of their owners. I myself had three 
masters in Maryland, and I cannot say now, even after 
having resided so many years in a stat€ where slavery 
is not tolerated, that either of them (except the hf^t, who 
gold me to the Georgians, and was an unfeeling man,) 



41 rni; adventures op 

used mc worse thau they had a moral right to do, regard- 
ing me merely as an article of property, and not entitled 
to any rights as a man, political or civil. My mistresses, 
in Maryland, were all good women; and the mistress of 
luy wife, in whose kitchen I spent my Sundays, and many 
of my nights, for several years, was a lady of the most 
benevolent and kindly feelings. She was a true friend 
to me, and I shall always venerate her memory. 

It is now my opinion, after all I have seen, that there 
are no better-hearted women in the world than the ladies 
of the ancient families, as they are called, in old Virginia, 
or the country below the mountains; and the same 
observations will «ipply to the ladies of Maryland. The 
stock of slaves has belonged to the family for several 
generations, and there is a kind of family pride in being 
the proprietors of so many human beings, which, in many 
instances borders on affection for people of color. 

If the proprietors of the soil, in Maryland and Virginia, 
were skilful cultivators, had their lands in good condition, 
and keptrno more slaves on each estate, than would be suffi- 
cient to work the soil in a proper manner, and keep up 
the place, the condition of the colored people would not 
be, by any means, a comparatively unhappy one. I am 
convinced, that in nine cases in ten, the hardships and 
Bufferings of the colored population of lower Virginia is 
attributable to the poverty and distress of its owners. In 
many instances, an estate scarcely yields enough to feed 
and clothe the slaves in a comfortable manner, without 
allowing "anything for the support of the master and 
family; but it is obvious that the family must iSrst be 
supported, and the slaves must be content with the 
surplus; and this, on a poor, old, worn out tobacco plan- 
tuition, is often very small, and wholly inadequate to the 



CHARLES BALL. 45 

comfortable sustenance of the hands, as they are calied. 
There, in many places, nothing is allowed to the poor 
negro but his peck of corn per week, without the sauce of 
a salt herring, or even a little salt itself. 

Wretched as may be the state of the negroes in the 
quarter, that of the master, and his wife and daughters, 
is, in many instances, not much more enviable, in the old 
apartments of the great house. The sons and daughters 
of the family are gentlemen and ladies by birthright; 
and were the former to be seen at the plough, or the lat- 
ter at the churn or the wash tub, the honor of the family 
would be stained, and the dignity of the house degraded. 
People must and will be employed about something; and 
if they cannot be usefully occupied, they will most surely 
engage in some pursuit wholly unprofitable. So it hap- 
pens in Virginia; the young men spend their time in 
riding about the country, whilst they ought to be plowing 
or harrowing in the corn-field; and the young women are 
engaged in reading silly books, or visiting their neighbors' 
houses, instead of attending to the dairy or manufacturing 
cloth for themselves and their brothers. During all this, 
the father is too often engaged in defending himself 
against the attorneys, or making such terms as he can 
with the sheriflf, for debts in which he has been involved 
by the vicious idleness of his children, and his own 
want of virtue and courage to break through the evil 
tyranny of old customs, and compel his offspring to learn, 
in early life, to procure their subsistence by honest and 
honorable industry. In this state of things there is not 
enough for all. Pride forbids the sale of the slaves, aa 
long as it is possible to avoid it, and their meagre allow- 
ance of corn is stinted, rather than it shall be said the mas- 
ter was obliged to sell them. Somebody must suffer, and 

E 



46 THE ADVENTURES OF 

"flclf-prescrvation is the first law of nature/' says the 
proverb; hunger must invade either the great house or the 
quarter, and it is but reasonable to suppose that such an 
unwelcome intruder would be expelled, to the last moment, 
from the former. In this conflict of pride and foUy^ 
against industry and wisdom, the slaveholders of Virginia 
have been unhappily engaged for more than fifty years. 

They are attempting to perform impossibilities; to draw 
the means of supporting a life of idleness, luxury and 
splendor, from a once generous, but long since worn out 
and exhausted soil — a soil which, if carefully used, would 
at this day have richly repaid the toils of the husbandman, 
by a noble abundance of the comforts of life; but which, 
tortured into barrenness by the double curse of slavery 
and tobacco, stands — and until its proprietors are regen- 
erated, and learn the difference between a land of slaves 
and a nation of freemen, must continue to stand — a mon. 
ument of the poverty and punishment which Providence 
has decreed as the reward of idleness and tyranny. The 
gennil features of slavery are the same everywhere; but 
the utmost rigor of the system is only to be met wdth on 
the cotton plantations of Carolina and Georgia, or in the 
rice fields which skirt the deep swamps and morasses of 
the southern rivers. In the tobacco fields of Maryland 
and Virginia great cruelties are practised, not so frequently 
by the owners as by the overseers of the slaves; but yet, 
the tasks arc not so excessive as in the cotton region, nor 
is the press of labor so incessant throughout the year. 
It is true, that from the period when the tobacco plants 
are set in the field, there is no resting until it is housed; 
but ifl is phnitcd in May, and must be cut and taken out 
of the field before the frost comes. After it is hung and 
dried, the labor of stripping and preparing it for the 



CHAHLES BALL. 47 

hogshead in leaf, or of manufacturing it into twisty is 
comparatively a work of leisure and ease. Besides^ on 
almost every plantation the hands are able to complete 
the work of preparing the tobacco by January, and some- 
times earlier; so that the winter months form some sort 
of respite from the toils of the year. The people are 
obliged, it is true, to occupy themselves in cutting wood 
for the house, making rails and repairing fences, and in 
clearing new land to raise tobacco for the next year; but 
as there is usually time enough, and to spare, for the 
completion of all this work, before the season arrives for 
setting the plants in the field, the men are seldom flogged 
much, unless they are very lazy or negligent, and the 
women are allowed to remain in the house, in very cold, 
snowy or rainy weather. I, who am intimately acquainted 
with the slavery both of Maryland and Virginia, and 
know that there is no material difference between the two, 
aver, that a description of one is a description of both ; 
and that the colored people here have many advantages 
over those of the cotton region. There are seldom more 
than one hundred, of all ages and conditions, kept on one 
tobacco plantation ; though there are sometimes many 
more; but this is not frequent; whilst on the cotton 
estates I have seen four or five hundred working together 
in the same vast field. In Maryland, the owners of the es- 
tates generally reside at home throughout the year ; and the 
mistress of the mansion is seldom absent more than a few 
weeks in the winter, when she visits Baltimore or Wash- 
ington. The same is the case in Virginia, Her constant 
residence on the estate makes her acquainted, personally, 
with all the slaves ; and she frequently interests herself in 
their welfare, often interceding with the master^ her 
husband, to prevent the overs er from beating them 
unmercifully. 



48 illC AL>VL>fTl'KES OF 

The >-«ung Uilit.'S of the tamlly, also, if there be any, 
after thcj have left s^-hool, are generally at home until 
they are married. Each of them uniTcrsally claims a 
young black girl as their own, and takes her under her 
protection. This enables the girl to extend the protection 
and fricnd.ship of young mistress to her father mother, 
brothers and sisters. The sons of the family likewise 
have their favorites among the black boys, and have 
many disputes with the overseer if he abuses them. All 
these advantages accrue to the black people, from the 
circumstance of the master and his family living at home. 
In Maryland I never knew a mistress, or a young mistress, 
who would not listen to the complaints of the slaves. It 
is tnie, we were always obliged to approach the door of 
the mansion in the most humble and supplicating manner, 
with our hats in our hands, and the most subdued and 
beseeching language in our mouths; but, in return, we 
generally received words of kindness, and very often a 
redress of our grievances; though I have known very 
great ladies who would never grant any requests from 
the plantation hands, but always referred them and their 
petitions to their master, under a pretence that they could 
not meddle with things that did not belong to the house. 
The mistrcs.ses of the great fVimilies generally gave mild 
language to the slaves; though they sometimes sent for 
the ovcrBcer and had them severly flogged; but I have 
never hoard any mistres.s, in either Maryland or Virginia, 
indulge in the low, vulgar and profane vituperations, of 
which J wa.s myself the object in Georgia, for several 
years, whenever I came into the presence ^of my mistress. 
Hogging, though often severe and excruciating in Mary- 
land, ,. ,,ot practised with the x)rder, regularity and 
.VHtom fo which it. i. reduced in the south. On the 



OilARLES BALL. 49 

Potomac^ if a slaves gives offence, he is generally chas- 
tised on the spot; in the field where he is at work, as the 
overseer always carries a whip — sometimes a twisted cow- 
hide, sometimes a kind of horse-whip, and very often a 
simple hickory switch or ga^, cut in the adjoining woods. 
For stealing meat, or other provisions, or for any of the 
higher offences, the slaves are stripped, tied up by the 
hands — sometimes by the thumbs — and whipped at the 
quarter; but many times, on a large tobacco plantation, 
there is not' more than one of these regular whippings in 
a week ) though on others, where the paster happens to 
be a bad man, or a drunkard, the back of the unhappy 
Maryland slave is seamed with scars fron^ his tl^ck to his 
hips. * 

It was my fortune, whilst I \^s a slave in Maryland, 
always to have comparatively mild masters; and as I 
uniformly endeavored to do whatever was held to be the 
duty of a good slave, according to the customs of the 
country, I was never tied up to be flogged there, and 
never received a blow from my master after I was fifteen 
years old. I was never under the control of an overseer 
in Maryland ; or it is very likely that I should not have 
been able to give this account of myself. 

It is the custom of all the tobacco planters, in Mary- 
land and Virginia, to plant a certain portion of their land 
in corn, every year;' so much as they suppose will be 
sufficient to produce bread, as they term it, for the negroes. 
By bread is un lerstood, a peck of corn per week, for each 
of their slaves. 

After my return from the Navy Yard, at Washington, 
I was generally employed in the culture of tobacco; but 
my attention was necessarily divided between the tobacco 
and the corn. The corn crop is, however, only a matter 

E* 



60 THE ADVENTURES OF 

of secouJary consideration, as no grain of any kind is 
grown for sale, by the planters; and if they raised as 
much, in my time, as supplied the wants of the people 
and the horses ol the stable, it was considered good farm- 
ing. The sale of the tobacco was regarded as the only 
means of obtaining money, or any commodity which did 
not grow on the plantation. 

It is unfortunate for the slaves, that in *a tobacco or 
cotton growing country no attention whatever is paid to 
the rearing of sheep; consequently, there is no wool to 
make winter clothes for the people, and oftentimes they 
suffer excessively from the cold; whereas, if their masters 
kept a good flock of sheep to supply them with wool, they 
could easily spin and we^ve, in their cabins, a sufficiency 
of cloth to clothe them comfortably. 

As many persons may be unacquainted with the process 
of cultivating tobacco, a short account of the growth of 
the plant may not be uninteresting. The operation is to 
be commenced in the month of February, by clearing a 
piece of new land, and burning the timber cut from it, on 
the ground, so as to form a coat of ashes over the whole 
space, if possible. This ground is then dug up with a 
hoe, and the sticks and roots are to be carefully removed 
from it. In this bed the tobacco seeds are sown, about 
the beginning of March, not in hills or in rows, but by 
broad-cast, as in sowing turnips. The seeds do not spring 
Boon, but generally the young plants appear early in 
April. If the weather, at the time the tobacco comes up, 
iw it i.s called, is yet frosty, a covering of pine tops, or red 
cedar branches, is thickly spread over the whole patch, 
which con.si.sts of from one to four or five acres, according 
to the dimensions of the plantation to be provided with 
plantf.. As soon a. the wenthor becomes fine, and the 



CHARLES BALL. 51 

young tobacco begins to grow, the covering of the branches 
is removed, and the bed is exposed to the rays of the 
sun. From this time the patch must be carefully attended, 
and kept clear of grass and weeds. In the months of 
march and April the people are busily employed in plow- 
ing the fields in which the tobacco is to be planted in 
May. Immediately after the corn is planted, every one, 
man, woman and child, able to work with a hoe, or carry 
a tobacco plant, is engaged in working up the whole 
plantation, already ploughed a second time, into hills 
about four feet apart, laid out in regular rows across the 
field, by the course of the furrows. These hills are 
formed into squares or diamonds, at equal distances both 
ways, and into these are transplanted the tobacco plants 
from the beds in which the seeds were sown. This 
transplantation must be done when the earth is wet with 
rain, and it is best to do it, if possible, just before, or at 
the time the rain falls, as cabbages are transplanted in a 
kitchen garden; but as the planting a field of one or two 
hundred acres with tobacco, is not the work of an hour, 
as soon as it is deemed certain that there will be a sufii- 
cient fall of rain to answer the purpose of planting out 
tobacco, all hands are called to the tobacco field, and no 
matter how fast it may rain, or how violent the storm 
may be, the removal of the plants from the bed, and 
fixing them in the hills where they are to grow in the 
field, goes on until the crop is planted out, or the rain 
ceases, and the sun begins to shine. Nothing but the 
darkness of night and the short respite required for the 
scanty meal of the slaves, produces any cessation in the 
labor of tobacco planting, until the work is done, or the 
rain ceases and the clouds disappear. Some plants die un- 
der the operation of removal, and their places are to be sup- 
plied from those left in the bed, at the fall of the next rain. 



62 ihf: adventures of 

Sometimes the tobacco worm appears among the plants, 
before their removal from the bed, and from the moment 
this loathsome reptile is seen, the plants are to be care- 
fully examined every day, for the purpose of destroying 
any worms that may be found. It is, however, not until 
the plants have been set in the field, and have begun to 
grow and flourish, that the worms come forth in their full 
strength. If unmolested, they would totally destroy the 
largest field of tobacco in the months of June and July. 
At this season of the year, every slave that is able to kill 
a tobacco worm, is kept in the field from morning until 
night. Those who are able work with hoes, are enga- 
ged in weeding the tobacco, and at the same time 
destroying all the worms they find. The children do 
nothing but search for and destroy the worms. All 
this labor and vigilance, however, would not suffice to 
keep the worms under, were it not for the aid of turkeys 
and ducks. On some large plantations they raise from 
one to two hundred turkeys, and as many ducks; not for 
the purpose of sale, but for the destruction of tobacco 
worms. The ducks live in the tobacco field, day and 
night, except when they go to water; and as they are 
great gormandizers, they take from the plants and destroy 
an infinite number of worms. They are fond of them as an 
article of food, and require no watching to keep them in 
their place. But it is otherwise with the turkeys; these 
require very peculiar treatment. They must be kept all 
night in a large coop, spacious enough to contain the 
whole flock, with poles for them to roost on. As soon as 
it is light in the morning, the coop is opened, the fiock 
turned out and driven to the tobacco field. 

Two hundred turkeys should be followed by four or five 
lads, or young men, to keep them together and at their 



CHARLES BALL. 53 

duty. One turkey will destroy as many worms as five 
men could do in the same period of time; but it seems 
that tobacco worms are not the natural food of turkeys; 
and they are prone to break out of the field, and escape 
to the woods or pastures in search of grasshoppers, which 
they greatly prefer to tobacco worms, for breakfast. 
However, if kept amongst the tobacco, they commit terri- 
ble ravages amongst the worms, and will eat until they 
are filled up to the throat. When they cease eating 
worms, they are to be driven back to the coop, and shut 
up, where they must have plenty of water, and about a peck 
of corn to a hundred turkeys. If they get no corn, and are 
forced to live on tobacco worms only, they droop, become 
sickly, and would doubtlessly die. In the evening they 
are again driven to the field, and treated again in the 
same manner as in the morning. 

The tobacco worm is of a bright green color, with a 
series of rings or circles round its body. I have seen 
them as large as a man's longest finger. I was never able 
to discover in what manner th^y originate. They certainly 
do not change into a butterfly as some other worms do ; 
and I could never perceive that they deposite eggs any 
where. I am of opinion that there is something in the 
very nature of the tobacco plant, which produces these 
nauseous reptiles, for they are too large, when at full 
growth, to be ranked with insects. 

In the month of August, the tobacco crop is laid by, 
as it is termed ; which means that they cease working in 
tiie fields, for the purpose of destroying the weeds and 
grass; the plants having now become so large, as not to 
be injured by the under vegetation. Still, however, the 
worms continue their ravages, and it is necessary to^ 
employ all hands in destroying them. In this month also, 



54 THE ADVENTURES OF 

tho tobacco is to be topped, if it has not been done before. 
When the plants have reached the height of two or three 
feet, according to the goodness of the soil, and the vigor 
of the growth, the top is to be cut off to prevent it from 
going to seed. This topping causes all. the powers of the 
plant, which would be exhausted in the formation of 
flowers and seeds, to expand in leaves fit for use. After 
the tobacco is fully grown, which in some plants, happens 
early in August, it is to be carefully watched, to see when 
it is ripe, or fit for cutting. The state of the plant is 
known by its color, and by certain pale spots which appear 
on the leaves. It does not all arrive at maturity at the 
same time; and although some plants ripen early in 
August, others are not ripe before the middle of Septem- 
ber. When the plants are cut down, they are laid on the 
ground for a short time, then taken up, and the stalks 
split open to facilitate the drying of the leaves. In this 
condition it is removed to the drying house, and there 
hung up under sheds, until it is fully dry. From thence, 
it is removed into the tobacco house, and laid up in bulk, 
ready for stripping and manufacturing. 



CHAPTER V. 



Ir is time to resume the narrative of my journey 
southward. At the period of which I now write, tobacco 
was universally cultivated in those parts of Virginia 
through which I travelled ; and that, with the corn crops, 
constituted nearly the whole objects of agricultural labor. 



CHARLES BALL. 65 

The quantity of wlieat and rye wliich I saw on my 
journey, was very small. A little oats was growing on 
the estates of some gentlemen, who were fond of breeding 
fine horses. I did not perceive any material difference in 
the condition of the country as I passed south, until after 
crossing the Roanoke river. Near this stream we passed 
a very large estate, on which, there appeared to me, to be 
nearly a thousand acres of tobacco growing. Our master 
was informed by a gentleman whom we met here, that 
this property belonged to Mr. Randolph, a member of 
Congress, and one of the largest planters in Virginia. 
The land appeared to me, not to be any better than the 
tobacco lands in Maryland, though a little more sandy. 
The mansion house was low, and of ordinary appearance. 
The fields vrere badly fenced, and the whole place was in 
poor condition. "We passed close by a gang of near a 
hundred hands — men and women, at work with hoes 
in a tobacco field. I had not, m all Virginia, seen any 
slaves more destitute of clothes. Many of the men, and 
some of the young women, were without shirts; and 
several young lads, had only a few rags about their loins. 
Their skins looked dry and husky, which proved that they 
were not well fed. They were followed by an overseer, 
who carried in his hand a kind of whip, which I had never 
before seen ; though I afterwards became familiar with 
this terrible weapon. South of the Roanoke, the land 
became more sandy, and pine timber generally prevailed — 
in many places, to the exclusion of all other trees. In 
North Carolina, the same course of culture is pursued as 
that which I have noted in Virginia; and the same disas- 
trous consequences result from it; though, as the country 
has not been settled so long as the Northern part of 
Virginia and Maryland, so great a portion of the land ha3 



^tJ TJIK ADVENTURES OF 

not beeu worn out and abandoned in the former^ as in the 
latter. Here also, the red cedar ia seldom seen; as the 
pitch-pine takes possession of all waste and deserted fields. 
In this State, the houses are not so well built as the}^ are 
farther North ; there are fewer carriages, and the number 
of good horses, judging from those I saw on the road, 
must be much less. The inhabitants of the country are 
plainer in their dress, and they have fewer people of 
fashion, than are to be met in Virginia. The plantations 
here, were not so large as those I saw on the North of the 
Koanoke; but larger tracts of country are covered with 
wood, than any I had heretofore seen. The condition of 
the slaves is not worse here, than it is in Virginia; nor is 
there any wheat in Carolina worth speaking of. 

As we approached the Yadkin river, the tobacco disap- 
peared from the fields, and the cotton plant took its place, 
as au article of general culture. We passed the Yadkin 
by a ferry on Sunday morning ; and on the Wednesday 
following, in the evening, our master told us we were in 
the State of South Carolina. We staid this night in a 
small town called Lancaster; and I shall never forget the 
Bcnsatiuus which I experienced this evening, on finding 
myself in chains in the State of South Carolina. From 
my earliest recollections, the name of South Carolina hai 
beeu little les.s terrible to me, than that of the bottomless 
pit. In Maryland, it had always been the practice of 
master.s and mi.stresses, who wished to terrify their slaves, 
to threaten to sell them to South Carolina : where it was 
represented that their condition would be a hundred fold 
W(»rse than it wa.s in Maryland. I had regarded such a 
»alc of myself, as the greatest of evils that could befal me, 
and had .striven to demean myself in such a manner to 
my .Mvuor?, a? tn preclude them from all exeu.se for trans- 



CHARLES BALL. 57 

porting me ta so horrid a place. At length I found 
myself, without having committed any crime, or even the 
slightest transgression, in the place and condition of 
which I had through life, entertained the greatest dread. 
I slept but little this night, and for the first time, felt 
weary of life. It appeared to me that the cup of my 
misery was full — that there was no hope of release from 
my present chains, unless it might be to exchange them 
for the long lash of the overseers of the cotton' planta- 
tions ; in each of whose hands, I observed such a whip as 
I saw in possession of Mr. Randolph's slave driver in 
Virginia. I seriously meditated on self-destruction, and 
had I been at liberty to get a rope, I believe I should 
have hanged myself at Lancaster. It appeared to me, 
that such an act, done by a man in my situation, could not 
be a violatien of the precepts of religion, nor of the laws 
of God. 

I had now no hope of ever again seeing my wife and 
children, or of revisiting the scenes of my youth. I 
apprehended that I should, if I lived, suffer the most 
excruciating pangs, that extreme and long continued 
hunger could inflict; for I had often heard, that in South 
Carolina, the slaves were compelled in times of scarcity, to 
live on cotton seeds. 

From the dreadful apprehensions of future evil, which 
harrassed and harrowed my mind that night, I do not 
marvel, that the slaves who are driven to the South, often 
destroy themselves. Self-destructioU is much more fre- 
quent among the slaves in the cotton region, than is 
generally supposed. When a negro kills himself, the 
master is unwilling to let it be known, lest the deed should 
be attributed to his own cruelty. A certain degree of 
disgrace falls upon the master, whose slave has committed 
F 



58 THE ADVENTURES OF 

euic'idc— and the same man, Tvho would stand by, and se9 
his overseer give his slave a hundred lashes with the long 
whip on his bare back, without manifesting the least pity 
for the Bufferings of the poor tortured wretch, will express 
very profound regret, if the same slave terminates his own 
life to avoid a repetition of the horrid flogging. Suicide 
amongst the slaves, is regarded as a matter of dangerous 
example, and one which it is the business and the interest 
of all proprietors to discountenance and prevent. All the 
arguments which can be devised against it, are used to 
deter the negroes from the perpetration of it; and such as 
take this dreadful means of freeing themselves from their 
miseries, are always branded in reputation after death, as 
the worst of criminals; and their bodies are not allowed 
the smiill portion of Christian rites, which are awarded 
to the corpses of other slaves. 

Surely, if anything can justify a man in taking his life 
into his own hands, and tenninating his existence, no one 
can attach blame to the slaves on many of the cotton 
plantations of the South, when they cut short their breath, 
and the agonies of the present being, by a single stroke. 
What is life worth, amidst hunger, nakedness and exces- 
sive toil, under the continually uplifted lash ? 

It was long after midnight before I fell asleep; but the 
most pleasant dreams succeeded to these sorrowful fore- 
bodings. I thought I had, by some means, escaped from 
my master, and through infinite and unparalleled dangers 
an<l sufTorings, had made my way back to Maryland; and 
was again in the cabin of my wife, with two of my little 
children on my lap ; whilst their mother was busy in pre- 
paring for me a supper of fried fish, such as she often 
dressed when I was at homo, and had taken to her the 
fi.'^h I had caught in the Patuxent river. Every object 



CHARLES BALL. 6^ 

Was so vividly impresso-i upon my imagiiiation in this 
dream, that when I awoke, a firm conviction settled upon 
my mind, that by some means, at present incomprehensi- 
ble to me, I should yet again embrace my wife, and caress 
my children in their humble dwefling. Early in the 
morning, our master called us up, and distributed to each 
of the party, a cake made of corn meal, and a small piece 
of bacon. On our journey, we had only eaten twice a 
day, and had not received breakfast until about nine 
o'clock; but he said this morning meal was given to 
welcome us to South Carolina. He then addressed us all, 
and told us we might now give up all hope of ever return- 
ing to tiie places of our nativity; as it would be~ impossible 
for us to pass through the States of North Carolina and 
Virginia, without being taken up and sent back. He 
further advised us, to make ourselves contented; as he 
would take us to G-eorgia, a far better country than any 
we had seen ; and where we would be able to live in the 
greatest abundance. About sunrise we took up our 
march on the road to Columbia, as we were told. Hith- 
erto our master had not offei'ed to sell any of us, and had 
even refused to stop to talk to any one on the subject of 
our sale, although he had several times been addressed on 
this point before we reached Lancaster ; but soon after we 
departed from this village, we were overtaken on the road 
by a man on horseback, who accosted our driver, by asking 
him if his niggers were for sale. The latter replied, that 
he believed he would not sell any yet, as he was on his 
way to G-eorgia, and cotton being now much in demand, 
he expected to obtain high prices for us, from persons who 
were going to settle in the new purchase. He, however,, 
contrary to hig custom, ordered us to stop, and told the 
Srtrangcr he might look at \\%j aud that he would find us a 



00 THE ADVENTURES OF 

fine a lot of lianJs ii.s were ever imported into the country 
— tliat we were all prime property, and he had no doubt, 
would command his own prices in Georgia. 

The stranger, who was a thin, weather-beaten, sun- 
burned figure, then said, he wanted a couple of breeding 
-wenches, and would give as much for them as they would 
bring in Georgia — that he had lately heard from Augusta, 
and that nlytjers were not higher there than in Columbia; 
and as ho had been in Columbia the week before, he knew 
what nlgyers were worth. He then walked along our line 
R3 we stood chained together, and looked at the whole of 
us— then turning to the women, asked the prices of the 
two pregnant ones. Our master replied, that these were 
two of the best breeding-wenches in all Maryland — that 
one was twenty-two, and the other only nineteen — that 
the first was already the mother of seven children, and the 
other of four — that he had himself seen the children, at 
the time he bought their mothers — that each of them had 
n child every year, and that such wenches would be cheap 
at a thousand dollars each ; but as they were heavy, and 
not able to keep up with the gang, he would take twelve 
lumdred dollars for the two. The purchaser said this was 
too much, but that he would give nine hundred dollars 
for the pair. This price was promptly refused 3 but our 
master, after some consideration, said he was willing to 
Bell a bargain in these wenches, and would take eleven 
hundred d.illars for them; which was objected to on the 
other J^idc ; and many faults and failings were pointed out 
in the merchandize. After much bargaining, and many 
gross jests on the part of the stranger, he offered a thous- 
hnd dollars for (he two; and said he would give no more. 
lie then mounted his horse, and moved off; but after he 
had gone about one hundred yards, he was called back ; 



CHARLES BALL. 61 

and our master said if he would go with him to the next 
blacksmith shop on the road to Columbia^ and pay for 
takilig the irons ofifthe rest of us, he might have the two 
women. 

This proposal was agreed to, and as it was now albout 
nine o'clock, we were ordered to hasten on to the next 
honse; where, we were told, we must stop for breakfast. 
At this place, we were informed that it was ten miles to 
the next smith-shop ; and our new acquaintance was obli- 
ged, by the terms of his contract, to accompany us thither. 
We received for breakfast, about a pint of boiled rice to 
each person, and after this was despatched, we again took 
to the road, eager to reach the blacksmith's shop, at 
which we expected to be relieved of the iron rings and 
chains which had so long galled and worried us. About 
two o'clock, we arrived at the longed-for residence of the 
smith ; but on inquiry, our master was informed that he 
was not at home, and would not return before evening. 
Here a controversy arose, whether we should all remain 
here until the smith returned, or the stranger should go 
on with us to the next smithery, which was said to be 
only five miles distant. This was a point not easily 
settled between two such spirits as our master and the 
stranger; both of whom had been overseers in their time, 
and both of whom had risen to the rank of proprietors of 
glaves. 

The matter had already produced angry words, and 
much vaunting on the part of the stranger; ^^that a free- 
man of South Carolina, was not to be imposed upon; 
that by the constitution of the State, his rights were 
sacred, and he was not to be deprived of his liberty, at the 
arbitrary will of a man just from amongst the Yankees ; 
and ^ho had brought with him to the South, Ts raanj 



t)2 lUL ADVENTURES OF 

Yankee tricks aa he had niggers, and he believed many 
more." lie then swore, that ''all the niggers in the drove 
were Yankee niggers; and the two wenches he had bought 
were Yankees, and would soon have young Y'ankee 
niggers -y and he supposed the young ones would be mulatto 
Yankees." ''"When I overseed for Colonel Polk," said he, 
"on his rice plantation, he had two Y'ankee niggers that 
he brought from ■Maryland, and they were running away 
every day. I gave them a hundred lashes more than a 
dozen times; but they never quit running away, till I 
chained them together with iron collars round their necks; 
and chained them to spades, and made them do nothing 
but dig ditches to drain the rice swamps. They could not 
run away then, unless they went together, and carried 
their chains and spades with them. I kept them in this 
way two 3'ears; and better niggers I never had. One of 
them died one night ; and the other was never good for 
anything after he lost his mate. He never ran away 
ttfterw;ird.s, but he died too, after a while." He then 
addressed himself to the two women, whose master he had 
become, and told them that if ever they ran away, he 
would treat them in the same way. Wretched as I was 
myj^elf, my heart bled for these poor creatures, who had 
fallen into the hands of a tiger in human form. The 
dispute between the two masters was still raging, when, 
unexpe-'tedly, the blacksmith rode up to his house, on a 
thin bony looking horse; and dismounting, asked his wife 
what these gentlemen were making such a frolic about. 
I did not hear her answer; but both the di.sputants turned 
and addressed themselves to the smith— the one to know 
what price he would demand, to take the irons off all 
these niggers; and the other to know how long it would 
t«ke hiiu to perform the work. It is here proper for me 



CHARLES BALL. 68 

to observe, that there are many phrases of language in 
common use in Carolina and Georgia, which are applied 
in a way that would not be understood by a person from 
one of the northern States. For instance, when several 
persons are quarreling, brawling, making a great noise, or 
even fighting, they say ^Hhe gentlemen are frolichingy 
I heard many other terms equally strange, whilst I resi- 
ded in the southern country, amongst such white people 
as I became acquainted with ; though my acquaintance 
was confined, in a great measure, to overseers, and such 
people as did not associate with the rich planters and great 
families. 

The smith at length agreed to take the irons from the 
whole of us, for two dollars and fifty cents ; and immedi- 
ately set about it, with the air of indifference that he 
would have manifested in tearing a pair of old shoes from 
the hoofs of a wagon horse. It was four weeks and five 
days, from the time my irons had been riveted upon me 
until they were removed j and great as had been ray suf- 
ferings whilst chained to my fellow-slaves, I cannot say 
that I felt any pleasure in being released from my long 
confinement; for I knew that my liberation was only 
preparatory to my final, and as I feared, perpetual subju- 
gation to the power of some such monster as the one then 
before me, who was preparing to drive away the two unfor- 
tunate women whom he had purchased, and whose life's 
blood he had acquired the power of shedding at pleasure, 
for the sum of a thousand dollars. After we were released 
from our chains, our masiter sold the whole lot of irons, 
which we had borne from Maryland, to the blacksmith for 
seven dollars. 

The smith then produced a bottle of rum, and treated 
his two new acquaintances to a part of ita contents; 



»;4 THE ADVEXTURES OF 

wishing tlicin both good luck with their niygers. After 
these civilities were over, the two womeiij one of whom 
was certainly within a few diiys of her time^ were ordered 
to follow their now master, who shaped his course across 
the country, by a road leading westward. At parting 
from us, they both wept aloud, and wrung their hands in 
despair. We all went to them, and bade them a last 
farewell. Their road led into a wood, which they soon 
entered ; and I never saw them, nor heard of them again. 

These women had both been driven from Calvert county 
as well as myself; and the fate of the younger of the two, 
was peculiarly severe. 

She had been brought up as the waiting-maid of a 
young lady, the daughter of a gentleman, whose wife and 
family often visited the mistress of my own wife. I had 
frequently seen this woman when she was a young girl, in 
attendance upon her young mistress, and riding in the 
same carriage with her. The father of the young lady 
died, and soon after, she married a gentleman who resided 
a few miles off. The husband received a considerable 
fortune with his bride, and amongst other things, her 
waiting-maid; who was reputed a great beauty among 
people of color. lie had been addicted to the fashionable 
sports of the country before marriage, such as horse- 
racing, fox hunting, &c. and I had heard the black people 
say he drank too freely; but it was supposed that he 
would correct all these irregularities, after marriage, more 
especially as his wife was a great belle, and withal very 
handsome. The reverse, however, turned out to be the 
fact. Instead of growing better, he became worse; and 
in the course of a few years, was known all over the 
country, as a drunkard and a gambler. His wife, it was 
said, died of grief; and soon after her death, his effects 



CHARLES BALL. 06 

were seized by his creditors^ and sold by the Sheriff. The 
former waiting-maid^ now the mother of several children, 
was purchased by our present master for three hundred 
dollars at the SheriiF's sale; and this poor wretch, whose 
employment in early life, had been to take care of her 
young mistress, and attend her in her chamber and at her 
toilet, after being torn from her husband and her children, 
had now gone to toil out a horrible existence beneath the 
scorching sun of a South Carolina cotton field; under the 
dominion of a master, as void of the manners of a gentle- 
man, as he was of the language of humanity. 

It was now late in the afternoon ; but as we had made 
little progress to-day, and were now divested of the 
burden of our chains, as well as freed from the two women, 
who had hitherto much retarded our march, our master 
ordered us to hasten on our way, as we had ten miles to 
go that evening. I had been so long oppressed by the 
weight 'of my chains, and the iron collar about my neck, 
that for some time after I commenced walking at my natu- 
ral liberty, I felt a kind of giddiness or lightness of the 
head. Most of my companions complained of the same 
sensation, and we did not recover our proper feelings until 
after we had slept one night. It was after dark when we 
arrived at our lodging place, which proved to be the house 
of a small cotton planter, who, it appeared, kept a sort of 
a house of entertainment for travellers, contrary to what 
I afterwards discovered to be the usual custom of cotton 
planters. This man and my master had known each other 
before, and seemed to be well acquainted. He was the 
first person that wo had met since leaving Maryland, who 
was known to my master; and as they kept up a very free 
conversation through the coul-se of the evening, and the 
. house in which they were, was only separated from the 



60 THE ADVENTURES OF 

'kitchen, in which we were lodged/ by a space of a few 
feet, I had an opportunity of hearing much that was 
highly interesting to me. The landlord, after supper, 
carac ^vilh our master to look at us, and to see us receive 
our allowance of boiled rice from the hands of a couple of 
black women, who had prepared it in a large iron kettle. 
Whilst viewing us, the former asked the latter what he 
intended to do with his drove; but no reply was made to 
this inquiry; and as our master had, through our whole 
journey, maintained a studied silence on this subject, I 
felt a great curiosity to know what disposition he intended 
to make of the whole gang, and of myself in particular. 
On their return to the house I advanced to a small window 
in the kitchen, which brought me vnthin a few yards of 
the place where they sat, and from which I was able to 
hear all they said, although they spoke in a low tone of 
voice. I here learned, that so many of us as coiild be 
Bold for a good price, were to be disposed of in Columbia, 
on our arrival at that place, and that the residue would be 
driven to Augusta and sold ther3. 

The landlord assured my master that at this time slaves 
were much in demand, both in Columbia and Augusta; 
that purchasers were numerous and prices good; and that 
the best plan of eflfecting good sales would be, to put up 
each nifjyer separately, at auction, after giving a few days' 
notice, by an advertisement in the neighboring country. 
Cotton, he said, had nut been higher fur many years, and 
as a great many persons, especially young men, were 
moving off to the new purchase in Georgia, prime hands 
were in high demand, for the purpose of clearing the land 
in the now country; that the boys and girls, under twenty, 
would bring almost any price, at present, in Columbia, 
for the purpose of picking the growing crop of cotton, 



CHARLES BALL. 67 

whicli promised to be very heavy; and as most persons 
had planted more than their hands would be able to pick, 
young niggers, who would soon learn to pick cotton, were 
prime articles in the market. As to those more advanced 
in life, he seemed to think the prospect of selling them 
at an unusual price not so good, as they could not so 
readily become expert cotton pickers; he said further, 
that from some cause which he could not comprehend, the 
price of rice had not been so good thjs year as usual; and 
that he had found it cheaper to purchase rice to feed his 
own niggers than to provide them with corn, which had to 
be brought from the upper country. He therefore advised 
my master not to drive us towards the rice plantations of 
the low country. My master said he would follow his 
advice, at least so far as to sell a portion of us in Carolina, 
but seemed to bo of opinion that his prime hands would 
bring him more money in Georgia, and named me in 
particular, as one who would be worth at least a thousand 
dollars to a man who was about making a settlement, and 
clearing a plantation in the new purchase. I therefore 
concluded, that in the course of events, I was likely to 
become the property of a Georgian, which turned out, in the 
end, to be the case, though not so soon as I at this time 
apprehended. I slept but little this night, feeling a rest- 
lessness when no longer in chains ; and pondering over the 
future lot of my life, which appeared fraught only with 
evil and misfortune. Day at length dawned, and with its 
first light we were ordered to betake ourselves to the road, 
which we were told would lead us to Columbia, the place 
of intended sale of some, if not all of us. For several 
days past, I had observed that in the country through 
which we travelled, little attention was paid to the culti- 
vation of anything but cotton, Now this plant was almost 



53 THE ADVENTniES OF 

the sole posessor of the fields. It covered the plantations 
adjacent to the road, as far as I could see, both before 
and behind me, and looked not unlike buckwheat before 
it blossoms. I saw some small fields of corn, and lots of 
sweet potatoes, among which the young vines of the water- 
melon were frequently visible. The improvements on the 
plantations were not good. There were no barns, but 
only stables or sheds, to put the cotton under, as it was 
brought from the field. Hay seemed to be unknown in 
the country, for I saw neither hay-stacks nor meadows; 
and the few fields that were lying fallow had but small 
numbers of cattle in them, and these were thin and mea- 
gre. We had met with no flocks of sheep of late, and 
the hogs that we saw on the road-side were in bad condi- 
tion. The horses and mules that I saw at work in the 
cotton fields, were poor and badly harnessed, and the half 
naked condition of the negroes who drove them, or fol- 
lowed with the hoe, together with their wan complexions, 
proved to me that they had too much work, or not enough 
food. We passed a cotton-gin this morning, the first that 
I ever saw; but they were not at work with it. We also 
met a party of ladies and gentlemen on a journey of 
pleasure, riding in two very handsome carriages, drawn 
by sleek and spirited horses, very different in appearance 
from the moving skeletons that I had noticed drawing the 
ploughs in the fields. The black drivers of the coaches 
were neatly clad in gay colored clothes, and contrasted 
well with their half-naked brethren, a gang of whom were 
hoeing cotton by the road-side, near them, attended by 
an overseer in white linen shirt and pantaloons, with one 
of tlio long negro whips in his hand. 

I observed th:it these p or people did not raise their heads 
to look either at the fine coaches and horses then passing, 



CHARLES BALL. 69 

or at us; but kept their faces steadily bent towards the 
cotton phxnts, from among which they were removing the 
weeds. I almost shuddered at the sight, knowing t£at I 
myself was doomed to a state of servitude equally cruel 
and debasing, unless by some unforeseen occurrence I 
might fall into the hands of master of less inhumanity 
of temper than the one who had possession of the miser- 
able creatures before me. 



CHAPTER VI. 

It was manifest that I was now in a country where the 
life of the black man was no more regarded than that of 
an ox, except so far as the man was worth the more money 
in the market. On all the plantations that we passed, 
there was a want of live stock, of every description except 
slaves, and they were deplorably abundant 

The fields were destitue of everything that deserved 
the name of grass, and not a spear of clover was any- 
where visible. The few cattle that existed, were browsing 
on the boughs of the trees, in the woods. Everything 
betrayed a scarcity of the means of supplying the slaves, 
who cultivated the vast cotton fields, with a sufficiency of 
food. We travelled this day more than thirty miles, and 
crossed the Catawba river in the afternoon, on the bot- 
toms of which I saw, for the first time, fields of rice, 
growing in swamps covered with water. Causeways were 
raised through the low lands in which the rice grew, and 
on these the road was formed on which we travelled. 
These rice fields, or rather swamps had, in my eyes, a 

G 



70 TlfH ADVKNTURKS UF 

beautrful appearance. The rice was nearly two feet in 
height above the water, and of a vivid green color, cover- 
ing a large space, of at least a hundred acres. Had it 
not been for the water, which appeared stagnant and 
sickly, and swarmed with frogs and thousands of snakes, 
it would have been as fine a sight as one need wish to 
look upon. After leaving the low grounds along the 
river, we again entered plantations of cotton, which lined 
the roads on both sides, relieved, here and there, by corn 
fields and potato patches. We stopped for the night at a 
small tavern, and our master said we were within a day's 
journey of Columbia. 

We here again received boiled rice for supper, without 
salt, or any kind of seasoning; a pint was allotted to each 
person, which we greedily devoured, having had no dinner 
to-day, save an allowance of corn cakes, with the fat of 
about five pounds of bacon, extracted by frying, in which 
we dipped our bread. I slept soundly after this day's 
march, the fatigues of the body having for once overcome 
the agitations of the mind. The next day, which was, if 
my recollection is accurate, the ninth of June, was the 
last of our journey before our company separated; and we 
were on the road before the stars had disappeared from 
the sky. Our breakfast this morning consisted of bacon 
soup, a dish composed of corn-meal boiled in water, with 
a pmull piece of bacon to give the soup a taste of meat. 
For dinner we had boiled Indian peas, with a small allow- 
iince of bacon. This was the first time that we had 
wceivod two rations of meat in the same day, on the 
wholo journey, and some of our party were much sur- 
prised at the kindness of our master; but I had no doubt 
that his objoct was to make us l(X)k fat and hearty, to 
enable him to obtain better prices for us at Columbia. 



CHARLES BALL. 71 

At supper this niglit we had corn mugh, in large 
wooden trays, with melted lard to dip the mush in before 
eating it. We might have reached Columbia this day if 
we had continued our march, but we stopped at least an 
hour before sunset^ about three miles from town at the 
house of a man who supported the double character of 
planter and keeper of a house of entertainment; for I 
learned from his slaves that their master considered it 
disreputable to be called a tavern-keeper, and would not 
put up a sign, although he received pay of such persons 
as lodged with him. His house was a frame building, 
weather-boarded with pine boards, but had no plastering 
within. The funiiture corresponded with the house 
which contained it, and was both scanty and mean, 
consisting of pine tables and wooden chairs, with bottoms 
made of corn husks. The house was only one story high, 
and all the rooms, six or seven in number,, parlor, bed- 
rooms, and kitchen, were on the first floor. As the 
weather was warm and the windows open, I had an oppor- 
tunity of looking into the sleeping rooms of the family, 
as I walked round the house, which I was permitted 
freely to do. The beds and their furniture answered well 
to the chairs and tables; yet in the large front room P 
observed an old-fashioned side-board, a great' quantity of 
glass-ware, of various descriptions, with two or three dozen 
silver spoons, a silver tea urn, and several knives and 
forks with silver handles. In the corner of this room 
stood a bed with gfiudy red curtains, with figures of lions, 
elephants, naked negroes, and other representations of 
African scenery. 

The master of the house was not at home when we 
arrived, but came in from the field shortly afterwards. 
He met my master with the cordiality of an old friend. 



ri THE ADVENTURES OP 

though ho had never seen him before, said he was happy 
to see him at his house, and that the greatest pleasure he 
enjoyed was derived from the entertainment of sucli gen- 
tlemen as thought proper to visit his house; that he was 
always ghid to see strangers, and more especially gentle- 
men who were adding so much to the wealth and popula- 
tion of Carolina, as those merchants who imported servants 
from the north. He then observed that he had never 
seen a finer lot of property pass his house than we were, 
and that any gentleman who brought such a stock of 
hands into the country was a public benefactor, and 
entitled to the respect and gratitude of every friend of 
tlie south. He assured my master that he was happy to 
see liim at his house, and that if he thought proper to 
remain a few diiys with him, it would be his chief business 
to introduce him to the gentlemen of the neighborhood, 
who would all be glad to become acquainted with a mer- 
chant of his respectability. In the state of Maryland my 
master had been called a nejro buyer, or Georgia trader , 
sometimes a negro driver; but here 1 found that he was 
elevated to the rank of a merchant, and a merchant of 
the first order too; for it was very clear, that in the 
t)pinion of the landlord, no branch of trade was more 
honorable than the traffic in us poor slaves. Our master 
observed that he had a mind to remain here a short time, 
and try what kind of market Columbia would present for 
the sale of his lot of servants; and that he would make 
this house his homo, until he had ascei^ained what could 
be done in town, and what demand there was in the 
neighborhood for servants. We were not called slaves by 
these men, who talked of selling us, and of the price we 
would bring, with as little compunction of conscience as 
they would have talked of the sale of so many mules. 



CHARLES BALL, 78 

It is the custom throughout all the slave-holding states, 
amongst people of fashion, never to speak of their negroes 
as slaves, but always as servants; but I had never before 
met with the keeper of a public house, in the country, 
wht> had arrived at this degree of refinement. I had been 
accustomed to hear this order of men, and indeed the 
greater number of white people, speak of the people of color 
as niggers. We remained at this place more than two 
weeks; I presume because my master found it cheaper to 
keep us here than in town, or perhaps because he supposed 
we might recover from the hardships of our journey more 
speedily in the country. 

As it was here that my real acquaintance with South 
Carolina commenced, I have noted with more particularity 
the incidents that occurred, than I otherwise should have 
done. This family was composed of the husband, wife, 
three daughters, all young women, and two sons, one of 
whom appeared to be about twenty, and the other perhaps 
seventeen years old. They had nine slaves in all; one 
very old man, quite crooked with years and labor; two 
men of middle age; one lad, perhaps sixteen; one woman 
with three children, the oldest about seven; and a young 
girl of twelve or fourteen. The farm or plantation they 
lived on, contained about one hundred and fifty acres of 
cleared land, sandy, and the greater part of it poor, as 
was proved by the stinted growth of the cotton. 

At the time of our arrival at this house, I saw no per- 
sons about it, except the four ladies — the mother and her 
three daughters — the husband being in the field, as noti- 
ced above. According to the orders of my master,' I had 
taken the saddle from his horse and put him in a stable; 
and it was not until after the first salutations of the new 
landlord to my master were over, that he seemed to think 
G* 



74 THE ADVENTURES OF 

of askiug him whether he had coinc on foot, on horse 
back, or in a coach. He at length, however, turned sud- 
denly and asked him, with an air of surprise, where he 
had left his horses and carriage. My master said he had 
no carriage, that he travelled on horseback, and that his 
horse was in the stable. The landlord then apologised 
for the trouble he must have had, in having his horse put 
away himself; and said, that at this season of the year, 
the planters were so hurried by their crops, and found so 
much difficulty in keeping down the grass, that they were 
generally obliged to keep all their servants in the field; 
that for his part, he had been compelled to put his coach- 
man, and even the waiting-maids of his daughters into the 
cotton fields, and that at this time, his family were with- 
out servants, a circumstance that had never happened 
before ! ''P'or my part,'' said he, ^'I have always -prided 
myself on bringing up my family well, and can say, that 
although I do not live in so fine a house as some of the 
other planters of Carolina, yet my. children are as great 
ladies and gentlemen as any in the State. Not one of 
them has ever had to do a day's work yet, and as long as 
I live, never shall. I sent two of my daughters to 
Charleston last summer, and they were there three months; 
and I intend to scud the youngest there this summer. 
They have all learned to dance here in Columbia, where 
I sent them two quarters to a Frenchman, and he made 
me pny pretty well for it. They went to the same dancing 
school with the daughters of Wade Hampton and Colonel 
Fitzhugh. I am determined that they shall never marry 
any but gentlemen of the first character, and I know they 
will always follow my advice in matters of this kind. 
Thoy arc pnideut and sensible girls, and are not going to 
do as Major Pollack's daughters did this spring, who ran 



CHARLES BALL. 75 

away with a Georgia character, who brought a drove of 
cattle for sale from the Indian country, and who had not 
a nigger in the world. He staid with me sometime, and 
wished to have something to say to my second daughter, 
but the thing would not do/^ 

Here he stopped short in his narrative, and seeming to 
muse a moment, said to his guest, ^'I presume, as you 
travel alone, you have no family." '^No,^' replied my 
master, ^'I am a single man." ''I thought so by your 
appearance," said the loquacious landlord, '^and I shall be 
glad to introduce you to my family this evening. My 
sons are two as fine fellows as there are in all Carolina. 
My oldest boy is lieutenant in the militia, and in the same 
company that marched with Gen. Marion in the war. 
He was on the point of fighting a duel last winter, with 
young M'Corkle in Columbia; but the matter was settled 
between them. You will see him this evening when he 
returns from the coit-party. A coit-party of young bucks 
meets once every week about two miles from this, and as 
I wish my sons to keep the best company, they both 
attend it. There is to be a cock-fight there this afternoon, 
and my youngest son, Edmund, has the finest cock in this 
country. He is of the true game blood — the real Domi- 
nica game breed; and I sent to Charleston for his gaffs. 
There is a bet of ten dollars a side between my sons each, 
and one belonging to young Blainey, the son of Major 
Blainey. Young Blainey is a hot-headed young blood, 
and has been concerned in three duels, though I believe 
he never fought but one; but I know Edmund will not 
take a word from him, and it will be well if he and his 
cock do not both get well licked." 

Here the conversation was arrested by the sound of 
horses feet on the road, and in the next instant two young 



76 THE ADVENTURES OF 

men roJc up at a gallop, mounted on lean looking horses; 
one of the riders carrying a pole on his shoulder, with a 
game cock in a net bag, tied to one end of it. On per- 
ceiving them, the landlord exclaimed with an oath, 
''there's two lads of spirit! stranger — and if you will 
allow me the liberty of asking you your name, I will in- 
troduce you to them." At the suggestion of his name, 
my master seemed to hesitate a little, but after a moment's 
pause, said, "they call me M'Giffin, sir." ''My name is 
Ilulig, sir," replied the landlord, "and I am very happy 
to be acquainted with you Mr. M'Giffin," at the same 
time shaking him by the hand, and introducing his two 
sons, who were by this time at the door. 

This was the first time I had ever heard tlic name of 
my master, although, I had been with him two months. 
I had nevt3r seen him before the day on which he seized 
and bound me in Maryland, and as he took me away 
immediately, I did not hear his name at the time. The 
people who assisted to fetter me, either from accident or 
design, omitted to name him, and after we commenced our 
journey, he had maintained so much distant reserve and 
austerity of manner towards us all, that no one ventured 
to ask him his name. We had called him nothing but 
"master," and the various persons at whose houses we 
had stopped on our way, knew as little of his name as we 
did. We had frequently been asked the name of our 
master, and perhaps had not always obtained credence, 
when we said we did not know it. 

Throughout the whole journey, until after we were 
.released from our irons, he had forbidden us to converse 
together beyond a few words in relation to our temporary 
condition and wants ; and as he was wilh us all day, and 
never slept out of hearing of us at night, he rigidly en- 



CHARLES BALL. * 77 

forced his edict of silence. I presume that the reason of 
this prohibition of all conversation, was to prevent us 
from devising plans of escape; but he had imposed as 
rigid a silence on himself as was enforced upon us; and 
after having passed from Maryland to South Carolina in 
his company, I knew no more of my master, than, that he 
knew how to keep his secrets, guard his slaves, and make 
a close bargain. I had never heard him speak of his home 
or family; and therefore had concluded that he was an 
unmarried man, and an adventurer, who felt no more 
attachment for one place than another, and whose resi- 
dence was not very well settled; but, from the large sums 
of money which he must have been able to command and 
carry with him to the North, to enable him to purchase so 
large a number of slaves, I had no doubt that he was a 
man of consequence and consideration in the place from 
whence he came. 

In Maryland, I had always observed, that men who 
were the owners of large stocks of negroes, were not 
averse to having publicity given to their names; and that 
the possession of this species of property, even there, gave 
its owner more vanity and egotism, than fell to the lot of 
the holders of any other kind of estate; and in truth, 
my subsequent experience proved, that without the posses- 
sion of slaves, no man could ever arrive at, or hope to rise 
to any honorable station in society — yet, my master 
seemed to take no pride in having at his disposal the 
lives of so many human beings. He never spoke to us in 
words of either pity or hatred ; and never spoke of us, 
except to order, us to be fed or watered, as he would have 
directed the same offices to be performed for so many 
horses, or to enquire where the best prices could be 
obtained for us. He regarded us only as objects of traffic 



7if> ' THE ADVENTURES OF 

aaJ till' ni;iteniil.<i of liis commerce; and although he had 
lived .several years in Carolina and Georgia, and had 
there exercised the profession of an overseer, he regarded 
the southern planters as no less the subjects of trade and 
speculation, than the slaves he sold to them; as will 
appear in the sequel. It was to this man that the land- 
lord introduced his tAVO sons, and upon whom he was 
endeavoring to impose a belief, that he was the head of a 
family which took rank with those of the first planters of 
the district. The ladies of the household, though I had 
Bcen them in the kitchen when I walked round the house, 
had not yet presented themselves to my master, nor indeed 
were they in a condition to be seen anywhere but in the 
apartment they occupied at the time. The young gentle- 
men gave a very gasconading account of the coit party 
and cock fight, from which they had just returned, and 
according to their version of the affair, it might have been 
an assemblage of at least half the military officers of the 
State ; for all the persons of whom they spoke, were Cap- 
tains, Majors and Colonels. The eldest said he had won 
two barrels of punch at coits; and the youngest, whose 
cock had been victor in the battle, on which ten dollars 
were staked, vaunted much of the qualities of his bird; 
and supported his veracity by numerous oaths, and reiter- 
ated appeals to his brother for the truth of his assertions. 
Both these young men were so much intoxicated, that 
they with difficulty maintained an erect posture in walk- 
ing. 

By this time the sun was going down, and I observed 
two female slaves, a woman and girl, approaching the 
house on the side of the kitchen, from the cotton field. 
They were coming home to prepare supper for the family; 
the ladies whom I had seen in the kitchen, not havincr 



CHARLES BALL. 79 

been there for the purpose of performing the duties appro- 
priate to that station, but having sought it as a place of 
refuge from the sight of my master, who had approached 
the point of their dwelling silently, and so suddenly, as 
not to permit them to gain the foot of the stair-way in the 
large front room, without being seen by him, to whose 
view they by no means wished to expose themselves, 
before they had visited their toilets. About dark the 
supper was ready in the large room, and, as it had two 
fronts, one of which looked into the yard where my com- 
panions and I had been permitted to seat ourselves, and 
had an opportunity of seeing by the light of the candle all 
that was done within, and of hearing all that was said. 
The ladies, four in number, had entered the room before 
the gentlemen ; and when the latter came in, my master 
was introduced by the landlord to his wife and daughters, 
by the name and title of Colonel M' Giffin, which, at the 
time impressed me with a belief, that he was really an 
officer, and that he had disclosed this circumstance without 
my knowledge; but I afterwards perceived, that in the 
South it is deemed respectful to address a stranger by the 
title of Colonel, or Major, or General, if his appearance 
will warrant the association of so high a rank with his 
name. ' My master had declared his intention of becom. 
ing the inmate of this family for some time, and no pains 
seemed to be spared on their part, to impress upon his 
mind, the high opinion that they entertained of the dignity 
of the owner of fifty slaves; the possession of so large a 
number of human creatures, being, in Carolina, a certifi- 
cate of character, which entitles its bearer to enter what- 
ever society he may choose to select, without any thing 
more being known of his birth, his life or reputation. 
The man who owny fifty servants must needs be a gentle- 



80 THE ADVENTURES OP 

man amongst the higher ranks, and the owner of half a 
hundred niygers, is a sort of nobleman amongst the low, 
the ignorant and the vulgar. The mother and three 
daughters, whose appearance when I saw them in the 
kitchen, would have warranted the conclusion that they 
had just risen from bed, without having time to adjust 
their dress, were now gaily, if not neatly attired; and the 
two female slaves who had come from the field at sun- 
down to cook the supper, now waited at the table. The 
landlord talked much of his crops, his plantation and 
slaves, and of the distinguished families who exchanged 
visits with his own ; but my master took very little part 
in the conversation of the evening, and appeared disposed 
to maintain the air of mystery which had hitherto inves- 
ted his character. 

After it was quite dark the slaves came in from the 
cotton field, and taking little notice of us, went into the 
kitchen, and each taking thence a pint of corn, proceeded 
to a little mill, which was nailed to a post in the yard, 
and there commenced the operation of grinding meal for 
their suppers, which were afterwards to be prepared by 
baking the meal into "cakes at the fire. The woman who 
was the mother of the three small children, was permitted 
to grind her allowance of corn first, and after her came 
the old man, and the others in succession. After the 
corn was converted into meal, each one kneaded it up with 
cold water into a thick dough, and raking away the ashes 
from a small space on the kitchen hearth, placed the 
dough, rolled up in green leaves, in the hollow, and cov- 
ering it with hot embers, left it to be baked into bread, 
whicli was done in about half an hour. These loaves 
constituted the only supper of the slaves belonging to 
this famTly; for I observed that the two women who had 



CHARLES BALL. 81 

waited at the table, after the supper of the white people 
was disposed of, also came with their corn to the mill on 
the post, and ground their allowance like the others. They 
had not been permitted to taste even the fragments of the 
meal that they had cooked for their masters and mistresses. 
It was eleven o'clock before these people had finished their 
supper of cakes, and several of them, especially the 
younger of the two lads, were so overpowered with toil 
and sleep, that they had to be roused from their slumbers 
when their cakes were done, to devour them. 

We had for our supper, to-night, a pint of boiled rice to 
each person, and a small quantity of stale and very rancid 
butter, from the bottom of an old keg, or firkin, which 
contained about two pounds, the remnant of that which 
once filled it. "We boiled the rice ourselves, in a large 
iron kettle; and as our master now informed us that we 
were to remain here for some time, many of us deter- 
mined to avail ourselves of this season of respite from 
our toils, to wash our clothes, and free our persons from 
the vermin which had appeared amongst our party for 
several weeks before, and now began to be extremely 
tormenting. As we were not allowed any soap, we were 
obliged to resort to the use of a very fine and unctious kind 
of clay, resembling fullers' earth, but of a yellow color, 
which was found on the margin of a small swamp near 
the house. This was the first time that I had ever heard 
of clay being used for the purpose of washing clothes; 
but I often availed myself of this resource afterwards, 
whilst I was a slave in the south. We wet our clothes, 
then rubbed this clay all over the garments, 'and by 
scouring it out in warm water with our hands, the cloth, 
whether of woolen, cotton, or linen texture, was left 
entirely clean. We subjected our persons to the sams 



82 THE ADVENTURES OF 

process, auJ m this way freed our camp from the host of 
enemies that had been generated in the course of our 
journey. 

This washing consumed the whole of the first day of 
our residence on the plantation of Mr. Hulig. We all 
lay the first night in a shed^ or summer kitchen, standing 
behind the house, and a few yards from it, a place in 
which the slaves of the plantation washed their clothes, 
and passed their Sundays in warm weather, when they 
did not workj but as this place was quite too small to 
accommodate our party, or indeed to contain us, without 
crowding us together in such a manner as to endanger our 
health, wc were removed the morning after our arrival, to 
an old frame building, about one hundred yards from the 
house, which had been erected, as I learned, for a cotton, 
gin, but into which its possessor, for want of means I 
presume, had never introduced the machinery of the gin. 
This building wai near forty feet scjuare , was without 
aay other floor than the earth, and had neither doors nor 
windows, to close tlie openings which had been left for the 
admission of those who entered it. We were told that in 
this place the cotton of the 'plantation was deposited in the 
picking season, as it was brought from the field, until it 
could be removed to a neighboring plantation, where there 
was a gin to divest it of its seeds. 

Here we took our temporary "abode — men and women 
promiscuously. Our provisions, whilst we remained here 
were regularly distributed to us ; and the daily allowance 
to each person consisted of a pint of corn, a pint of rice, 
and about three or four pounds of butter, such as we had 
received on the night of our arrival, divided amongst us, 
in small pieces from the point of a table knife. The rice 
we l>oiled in the iron kettle; we ground our corn at the 



CHARLES BALL, ' 88 

little mill on the post ne-ixr the kitchen^ and converted the 
meal into bread, in the same manner we had been accus- 
tomed to at home — sometimes on the hearth, and some- 
times before the fire, on a hoe. The butter was given us 
as an extraordinary ration, to strengthen and recruit us 
after our long march, and give us a healthy and expert 
appearance at the time of our future sale. 

We had no beds of any kind to sleep on, l^ut each one 
was provided with a blanket, which had been the compan- 
ion of our travels. We were left entirely at liberty to go 
out or in when we pleased, and no watch was kept over us 
either by night or day. 

Our master had removed us so far from our native 
country, that he supposed it impossible for any of us ever 
to escape from him, -and surmount all the obstacles that 
lay between us and our former homes. He went away 
immediately after we were established in our[new lodgings, 
and remained absent until the second evening about sun- 
down, when he returned, came into our shed, sat down on 
a "block of wood in the midst of us, and asked if any one 
had been sick ; if we had got our clothes clean ; and if 
we had been supplied with an allowance of rice, corn and 
butter. After satisfying himself upon these points, he 
told us that we were now at liberty to run away if we 
chose to do so; but if we made the attempt we [should 
most certainly be retaken, and subjected to the most ter^ 
rible punishment. "I never flog,'* said he, ^""my practice 
is to cat-haul; and if you run away, and I catch you 
again — as I*surely shall do — and give you one cat-hauling, 
you will never runaway again, nor attempt it/' I did 
not then understand the import of cat-hauling, but in 
.after times became w&U acquainted with its signification. 

We remained in this place nearly two weeks, during 



84 THE ADVENTURES OF 

vrhich time our allowance of food waa not varied, and was 
regularly given to us. AYe were not required to do any 
work; and I had liberty an^ leisure to walk about the 
plantation, and make such observations as I could upon 
the new state of things around me. Gentlemen and 
ladies came every day to look at us, with a view of becom- 
ing our purcha-icrs; and we were examined with minute 
care as to our ages, former occupations, and capacity of 
performing labor. Our persons were inspected, and more 
especially the hands were scrutinized, to see if all the 
fingers were perfect, and capable of the c^uick motions 
necessary in picking cotton. Our master only visited us 
once a day, and sometimes he remained absent two days; 
80 that he seldom met any of those who came to see us; 
but, whenever it so happened that h'e did meet them, he 
laid aside his silence and became very talkatiye, and even 
animated in his conversation, extolling our good qualities, 
and avering that he had purchased some of us of one 
colonel, and others of another general in Virginia; that he 
could by no means have procured us, had it not been that, 
in some instances, our masters had ruined themselves, 
and were obliged Jo sell us to save their families from 
ruin; and in others; that their owners were dead, their 
estatee deeply ^dcbt, and we had been sold at public 
Bale; by which means he had become possessed of us. 
He said our habits were unexceptionable, our characters 
good, and that there was not one amongst us all who had 
ever been known to run away, or steal anything from our 
former masters. I observed that running away, and steal- 
ing from his master, were regarded as the highest crimes 
of which a slave 'could be guUty ; but I heard no questions 
asked concerning our propensity to st«al from other people 
bepidos our ma£t?rs, and I afterwai-ds learned that this was 



CHARLES BALL. 'Sit 

not always regarded as a very high crime by the owner 
of a slave, provided he would perpetrate the theft so 
adroitly as not to be detected in it. 

We were severally asked by our visiters if we would be 
willing to live with them, if they would purchase us, to 
which we generally replied in the affirmative; but our 
owner declined all offers that were made for us, upon the 
ground that we were too poor — looked too bad to be sold 
at present — and that in our condition he could not expect 
to get a fair value for ns. 

One evening, wtien our master was with us, a thin^^ 
sallow -looking man rode up to the house, and alighting 
from his horse, came to us, and told him he had come to 
buy a boy; that he wished to get a good field hand, and 
would pay a good price for him. I never saw a human 
countenance that expressed more of the evil passions of 
the heart than did that of this man, and his conversation 
corresponded with his phisiognom3^ Every sentence of 
his language was accompanied with an oath of the most 
vulgar profanity, and his eyes appeared to me to be the 
index of a soul as cruel as his visage was disgusting and 
repulsive. 

After looking at us for some time, this wretch singled 
me out as the object of his choice, and 'eoming up to me, 
asked me how I would like him for a master. In my 
heart I detested him ; but a slave is often afraid to speak 
the truth, and divulge all he feels; so with myself in this 
instance, as it was doubtful whether I might not fall into 
his hands, and be subject to the violence of his temper, I 
told him if he was a good master, as every gentleman 
ought to be, I should be willing to live with him. lie 
appeared satisfied with my answer, and turning to my 
master, said he would give a high price for me. '^I can," 



g6 THE ADVENTURES OF 

said h; ''by going to Charleston, buy as many Guinea 
uegroes as I please, for two hundred dollars each, but as 
I like this fellow, I will give you four hundred for him/' 
This offer struck terror into my very heart, for I knew it 
was as much as was generally given for the best and 
ablest slaves, and I expected that it would immediately 
be accepted as my price, and that I should at once be 
consigned to the hands of this man, of whom I had 
formed so abhorrent an opinion. To my surprise and 
satisfaction, however, my master made no reply to the 
proposition; but stood for a moment, with one hand raised 
to his face and his fore-finger on his nose, and then turn- 
ing suddenly to me, said, ''Charles go into the house; I 
shall not sell you to-day.'^ It was my business to obey 
the order of departure, and as I went beyond the sound 
of their voices, I could not understand the purport of the 
conversation which followed between these two traffickers 
in human blood; but after a parley of about a quarter of 
an hour, the hated stranger started abruptly away, and 
going to the road, mounted his horse and went off at a 
gallop, banishing himself and my fears together. 

I did not see my master again this evening, and when 
I came out of our barrcks in the morning, although it 
was scarcely daylight, I sow him standing near one corner 
of the building, with his head inclined towards the wall, 
evidently listening to catch any sounds within. He 
ordered me to go and feed his horse, and have him sad- 
dled for him by sunrise. About an hour afterwards he 
came to the Stable in his riding dress, and told mc that 
bo should remove us nil to Columbia in a few days. He 
then rude awty, and did not return until third day after- 
wards. 



CHARLES BALL. 87 



CHAPTER VII. 



It was now about the middle of June, the weather 
excessively warm, and from eleven o'clock, A. M. until 
late in the afternoon, the sand about our residence was so 
hot, that we could not stand on it with our bare feet in 
one posture, more than one or two minutes. The whole 
country, so far as I could see, appeared to be a dead plain, 
without the least variety of either hill or dale. The pine 
was so far the predominating timber of the forest, that at 
a little distance the entire woods appeared to be composed 
of this tree. 

I had become weary of being confined to the immediate 
vicinity of our lodgings, and determined to venture out 
into the fields of the plantation, and see the manner of 
cultivating cotton. Accordingly, after I had made my 
morning meal upon corn cakes, I sallied out in the direc- 
tion which I had seen the slaves of the plantation take at 
the time they left the house at day light, and following a 
path through a small field of corn, which was so tall as to 
prevent me from seeing beyond it, I soon arrived at the 
field in which the people were at work with hoes amongst 
the cotton, which was about two feet and a half high, and 
had formed such long branches, that they could no longer 
plough in it without breaking it. Expecting to pass the 
remainder of my life in this kind of labor, I felt anxious 
to know the evils, if any, attending it, and more especially 
the manner in which the slaves were t/eated on the cotton 
estates. 

The people now before me, were all diligently and labo- 
riously weeding and hilling the cotton with hoes, and 
when I approached them, they scarcely took time to speak 



88 THE ADVENTURES OF 

to me, but continued their labor as if I had not be^n pres- 
ent. As there did not appear to be any overseer with 
them, I thought 1 would go amongst them, and enter into 
conversation with them; but upon addressing myself to 
one of the men, and telling him, if it was not disagreeable 
to him, I should be glad to become acquainted with him; 
he said he should be glad to be acquainted with me, but 
master Tom did not allow him to talk much to people 
when he was at work. I asked him where his master 
Tom 'was ; but before he had time to reply, some one 
called — ^^mind your work there you rascals."" Looking 
in the direction of the sound, I saw master Tom, sitting 
under the shade of a sassafras tree, at the distance of 
about a hundred yards from us. Deeming it unsafe to 
continue in the field without the permission of its lord, I 
approached the sassafras tree, with my hat in my hand, 
and in a very humble manner, asked leave to help the 
people work a while, as I was tired of staying about the 
house and doing nothing. He said he did not care; I 
might go and work with them a while, but I must take 
care not to talk too much and keep his hands from their 
work 

Now, having authority on my side, I returned, and 
taking a hoe from the hands of a small girl, told her to 
pull up weeds, and I would take her row for her. When 
we arrived at the end of the rows which we were then 
hilling, master Tom, who still held his post under the 
sassafras tree, called his people to come to breakfast. 
Although I luid already broken my fast, I went with the 
rest for the purpose of seeing what, .their breakfast was 
composed of. At the tree, I saw a keg which contained 
about five gallon., with water in it ; and a gourd lying by 
It; near this, was a basket made of splits, large enough 



CHARLE?; BALL. 89 

to hold more than a peck. It contained the breakfast of 
the people, covered by some green leaves of the magnolia, 
or great bay tree of the South. When the leaves were 
removed, I found that the supply of provisions consisted 
of one cake of corn meal, weighing about half a pound 
for each person. This bread had no sort of seasoning, not 
even salt, and constituted the only breakfast of these poor 
people, who had been toiling from early dawn until about 
8 o'clock. There was no cake for me, and master Tom 
did not say anything to me on the state of my stomach ; 
but the young girl, whose hoe I had taken in the field, 
offered me a part of her cake, which I refused. After the 
breakfast was despatched, we again returned to our work ; 
but the master ordered the girl, whose hoe I had, to go 
and get another hoe, which lay at some distance in the 
field, and take her row again. I continued in the field 
until dinner, which took place about one o'clock, and waa 
the same in all respects, as the breakfast had been. 

Master Tom was the younger of the two brothers who 
returned from the cock fight on the evening of our arrival 
at this place — he left the field about ten o'clock, and was 
succeeded by his elder brother, as overseer for the re* 
mainder of the day. After this change of superinten- 
dents, my companions became more loquacious, and in the 
course of an hour or two, I had become familiar with the 
condition of my fellow laborers, who told me that the 
elder of their young masters was much less tyrannical 
than his younger brother ; and that whilst the former 
remained in the field, they would be at liberty to talk as 
much as they pleased, provided they did not neglect their 
work. One of the men, who appeared to be about forty 
years of age, and who was the foreman of the field, told 
me that he had been born in South Carolina, and had 



90 'iUE ADVENTURES OF 

always livc.l there, though he had only belonged to his 
present master about ten years. I asked him if his mas- 
ter allowed him no meat, nor any kind of provisions 
except bread ; to which he replied, that they never had 
any meat except at Christmas, when each hand on the 
place received about three pounds of pork; that from 
September, when the sweet potatoes were at the maturity 
of their growth, they had an allowance of potatoes as long 
as the crop held out, which was generally until about 
March ; but that for the rest of the year, they had nothing 
but a peck of corn a week, mth such weeds and other 
vegetables as they could gather from the fields for greens 
— that their master did not allow them any salt, and that 
the only means they had of procuring this luxury, was by 
working on Sundays for the neighboring planters, who 
paid them in money at the rate of fifty cents per day, with 
which they purchased salt and some other articles of con- 
venience. 

This man told me that his master furnished !iim with 
two shirt.>5 of tow linen, and two pair of trousers, one of 
woolen and the other of linen cloth, one woolen jacket, 
and one blanket every year. That he received the woolen 
clothes at Christmas, and the linen at Easter; and all 
other clothes, if he had any, he was obliged to provide for 
himself by working on Sunday. He said, that for several 
years past, he had not been able to provide any clothes for 
himself; as he had a wife with several small children on 
an adjoining plantation, whose master gave only one suit 
of clothes in the year to the mother, and none of any kind 
to the chiMren, which had compelled him to lay out all 
his savings in providing clothes for his family, and such 
little necessaries as were called for by his wife, from time 
to time. He had not had a shoe on his foot for severaj. 



CHARLES BALL. 



91 



yearS; but in winter made a kind of moccasin for himself 
of the bark of a tree, which he said was abundant in the 
swamps, and could be so manufactured as to make good 
ropes, and tolerable moccasins, sufficient at least, to defend 
the feet from the frost, though not to keep them dry. 

The old man whom I have alluded to before, was in the 
field with the others, though he was not able to keep up 
his row. He had no clothes on him except the remains of 
an old shirt, which hung in tatters from his neck and 
arms ; the two young girls had nothing on them but petti- 
coats, made of coarse tow cloth, and the woman, who was 
the mother of the children, wore the remains of a tow 
linen shift, the front part of which was entirely gone ; 
but a piece of old cotton bagging tied round her loins, 
served the purposes of an apron. The youngest of the 
two boys was entirely naked. 

The man who was foreman of the field, was a person of 
good sense for the condition of life in which fortune had 
placed him, and spoke to mc freely of his hard lot. I 
observed that under his shirt, which was very ragged, he 
wore a piece of fine linen cloth, apparently part of an old 
shirt, wrapped closely round his back, and confined in 
front by strings, tied down his breast. I asked him why 
he wore that piece of gentleman's linen under his shirt, 
and shall give his reply in his own words as well as I can 
recollect them, at a distance of near thirty years. 

^'I have always been a hard working man, and have 
suffered a great deal from hunger in my time. It is not 
possible for a man to work hard every day for several 
months, and get nothing but a peck of corn a week to eat, 
and not feel hungry. When a man is hungry you know, 
(if you have ever been hungry,) he must eat whatever he 
can get. I have not tasted meat since last Christmas, and 



ii2 TUii ADVENTURES OF 

we have had to work uncommonly hard this summer. 
Mastor has a flock of sheep, that run in the woods, and 
they come every night to sleep in the lane near the house. 
Two weeks ago last Saturday, when we quit work at night 
I was very hungry, and as we went to the house, we pas- 
sed along the lane where the sheep lay. There were 
nearly fifty of them, and some were very fat. The temp- 
tation was more than I could bear. I caught one of 
them, cut its head off with the hoe that I carried on my 
shoulder, and threw it under the fence. About midnight, 
when all was still about the house, I went out with a 
knife, took the sheep into the woods, and dressed it by the 
light of the moon. The carcase I took home, and after 
cutting it up, placed it in the great kettle over a good fire, 
intending to boil it and divide it, when cooked, between 
my fellow slaves (whom I knew to be as hungry as I was) 
and myself. Unfortunately for me, master Tom, who had 
been out amongst his friends that day, had not returned 
at bed time; and about one o'clock in the morning, at the 
time when I had a blazing fire under the kettle, I heard 
the sound of the feet of a horse coming along the lane. 
The kitchen walls were open so that the light of my fire 
could yot be concealed, and in a moment I heard the horse 
blowing at the front of the house. Conscious of my dan- 
ger, I stripped my shirt from my back and pushed it into 
the boiling kettle, so as wholly to conceal the fle.sh of the 
sheep. I hud scarcely completed this act of precaution, 
when master Tom burstcd into the kitchen, and with a ter- 
rible oath, asked me what I was doing so late at night, 
with a great fire in the kitchen. I replied, I am going to 
wash my shirt master, and am boiling it to get it clean, 
"Washing your shirt at this time of night,'' gaid he, <'I 
will let you know ihat you are not to sit up all night and 



CHARLES BALL. 98 

be lazy and good for nothing all day. There shall be no 
boiling of shirts here on Sunday morning/^ and thrusting 
his cane into the kettle^ he raised my shirt out and threw 
it on the kitchen floor. 

^^He did not at first observe the mutton, which rose to 
the surface of the water as soon as the shirt was removed ; 
but after giving the shirt a kick towards the door, he 
again turned his face to the fire, and seeing a leg standing 
several inches out of the pot, he demanded of me what I 
had in there and where I had got this meat ? Finding 
that I was detected, and that the whole matter must be 
discovered, I said — ^master I am hungry, and am cooking 
my 'supper. ^^What is it you have in here?^^ A sheep 
said I, and as the words were uttered he knocked me down 
with his cane, and after beating me severely, ordered me 
to cross my hands, until he bound me fast with a rope that 
hung in the kitchen, and answered the double purpose of 
a clothes line, and a cord to tie us with when we were to 
be whipped. He put out the fire under the kettle, drew 
me into the yard, tied me fast to the mill post, and leaving 
me there for the night, went and called one of the negro 
boys to put his horse in the stable, and went to his bed. 
The cord was bound so tightly round my wrists, that 
before morning the blood had burst out under my finger 
nails; but I suppose my master slept soundly for all that. 
I was afraid to call any one to come and release me from 
my torment, lest a still more terrible punishment might 
overtake me. 

^^I was permitted to remain in this situation until long 
after sun rise the next morning, which being Sunday, was 
quiet and still ; my fellow slaves being permitted to take 
their rest after the severe toil of the past week, and my 
old master and two young ones, having no occasion to rise 
1 



94 TUE ADVENTURES OF 

to call the hands to the field, did not think of interrup- 
ting their morning slumbers, to release me from my pain- 
ful confinement. However, when the sun was risen about 
an hour, I heard the noise of persons moving in the great 
house, and soon after, a loud and boisterous conversation, 
which I well knew portended no good to me. At length 
thej all three came into the yard where I lay lashed to the 
post, and approaching me, my old master asked me if I 
had any accomplices in stealing the sheep. I told them 
none ; that it was entirely my own act ; and that none of 
my fellow slaves had any hand in it. This was the truth; 
but if any of my companions had been concerned with me, 
I should not have betrayed them; for such an act of 
treachery, could not have alleviated the dreadful punish- 
ment which I knew awaited me, and would only have in- 
volved them in the same misery. 

''They called me a thief, loaded me with oaths and 
imprecations, and each one proposed the punishment 
which he deemed the most appropriate to the enormity of 
the crime that I had committed. Master Tom was of 
opinion, that I should be lashed to the post at the foot of 
which I lay, and that each of my fellow slaves, should be 
compelled to give me a dozen lashes in turn, with a roasted 
and greased hickory gad, until I had received in the 
whole, two hnndred and fifty lashes on my bare back, and 
that he would stand by with the whip in his hand, and 
compel them not to spare me ; but after a short debate this 
was given up, as it would probably render me unable to 
work in the field again for several weeks. My master 
Ned, was in favor of giving me a dozen lashes every 
morning for a month, with the whip; but my old master 
said this would be attended with too much trouble, and 
besides^ it would keep me from my work at least half an 



CHARLES BALL, 95 

hour every morning; and proposed in his turn, that I 
should not be whipped at all, but that the carcase of the 
sheep should be taken from the kettle in its half boiled 
condition, and hung up in the kitchen loft without salt ; 
and that I should be compelled to subsist on this putrid 
mutton without any other food, until it should be consu- 
med. This suggestion met the approbation of my young 
masters, and would have been adopted, had not mistress 
at this moment came into the yard, and hearing the intend- 
ed punishment, loudly objected to it, because the mutton 
would in a day or two create such an offensive stench, that 
she and my young mistresses would not be able to remain 
in the house. My mistress swore dreadfully, and cursed 
me for an ungrateful sheep thief, who, after all her kind- 
ness in giving me soup and warm bread when I was sick 
last winter, was always stealing every thing I could get 
hold of. She then said to my master, that such villainy 
ought not to be passed over in a slight manner, and that 
as crimes, such as this, concerned the whole country, my 
punishment ought to be public for the purpose of exam- 
ple; and advised him to have me whipped that same 
afternoon, at about five o'clock; first giving notice to the 
planters of the neighborhood to come and see the specta- 
cle, and to bring with them their slaves, that they might 
be witnesses to the consequences of stealing sheep. 

^*They then returned to the house to breakfast ; but as 
the pain in my hands and arms, produced by the ligatures 
of the cord with which I was bound, were greater than 1 
could bear, I now felt exceedingly sick, and lost all knowl- 
edge of my situation. They told me I fainted; and 
when I recovered my faculties, I found myself lying in 
the shade of the house, with my hands free, and all the 
white persons in my master's family, standing around me. 



96 THE ADVENTURES OP 

A3 soon as I was able to stand, the rope was tied round 
my neck, and the other end again fastened to the mill post. 
My mistress said I had only pretended to faint ; and mas- 
ter Tom said I would have something w^orth fainting for 
before night. He was faithful to his promise ; but for the 
present, I was suflfcrcd to sit on the grass in the shade of 
the house. 

"As soon as breakfast was over, my two young masters 
had their horses saddled, and set out to give notice to 
their friends of what had happened, and to invite them to 
come and see me punished for the crime I had committed. 
My mistress gave me no breakfast, and when I begged one 
of the black boys whom I saw looking at me through the 
pales, to bring me some water in a gourd to drink, she or- 
dered him to bring it from a puddle in the lane. My mis- 
tress has always been very cruel to all her black people. 

"I remained in this situation until about eleven o'clock, 
when one of my young mistresses came to me and gave 
me a piece of jonny-cake about the size of my hand, per- 
haps larger than my hand, telling me at the same time, 
that my fellow slaves had been permitted to re-boil the 
mutton that I had left in the kettle, and make their break- 
fast of it; but, that her mother would not allow her to 
give me any part of it. It was well for them that I had 
parboiled it with my shirt, and so defiled it, that it was 
unfit for the table of my master ; otherwise, no portion of 
it would have fallen to the black people — as it was, they 
had as much meat as they could consume in two days, for 
which I had to suffer. 

*'About twelve o'clock, one of my young masters re- 
turned, and soon afterwards the other came home. I 
heard them tell my old master, that they had been round 
to give notice of my offence to the neighboring planters. 



CHARLES BALL. 97 

and that several of them would attend to see me flogged, 
and would bring with them some of their slaves, who 
might be able to report to their companions what had been 
done to me for stealing. 

^^It was late in the afternoon before any of the gentle- 
men came ; but before five o'clock, there were more than 
twenty white people^ and at least as many black ones present, 
the latter of whom had been compelled by their masters to 
come and see me punished. Amongst others, an overseer 
from a neighboring estate attended, and to him was award- 
ed the office of executioner. I was stripped of my shirt, 
and the waist-band of my trowsers was drawn closely 
round me, below my hips, so as to expose the whole of my 
back, in its entire length. 

^'It seems that it had been determined to beat me with 
thongs of raw cow-hide; for the overseer had two of 
these in his hands, each about four feet long ; but one of 
the gentlemen present, said this might bruise my back so 
badly that I could not work for some time ; perhaps not 
for a week or two ; and as I could not be spared from 
the field without great disadvantage to my master's crop, 
he suggested a difi'erent plan, by which, in his opinion 
the greatest degree of pain could be inflicted on me, with 
the least danger of rendering me unable to work. As he 
was a large planter, and had more than fifty slaves, all 
were disposed to be guided by his counsels ; and my mas- 
ter said he would submit the matter entirely to him, as a 
man of judgment and experience in such cases. He then 
desired my master to have a dozen pods of red pepper 
boiled in half a gallon of water, and desired the overseer 
to lay aside his thongs of raw hide, and put a new cracker 
of silk to the lash of his negro whip. Whilst these prep- 
arations were being made, each of my thumbs was lashed 

I* 



9S THE ADVENTUPvES OF 

closely to the end of a stick about three feet long, and a 
chair being placed beside the mill post, I was compelled 
to raise my hands and place the stick, to wbich my thumbs 
were bound, over the top of the post, wliich is about 
eighteen inches square; the chair was then taken from 
under me, and I was left hanging by the thumbs, with my 
face towards the post, and my feet about a foot from the 
ground. My two great toes were then tied together, and 
drawn down the post, as far as my joints could be stretch- 
ed ; the cord was passed round the post two or three times 
and securely fastened. In this posture I had no power 
of motion, except in my neck, and could only move that 
at the expense of beating my face against the side of the 
post. 

''The pepper tea was now brought and poured into a 
basin to cool ; and the overseer was desired to give me a 
dozen lashes just above the waist-band; and not to cover 
a space of more than four inches on my back, from the 
waist-band upwards. He obeyed the injunction faithfully 
but slowly, and each crack of the whip, was followed by a 
sensation as painful as if a red hot iron had been drawn 
across my back. When the twelve strokes had been given, 
the operation was suspended, and a black man, one of the 
slaves present, was compelled to wash the gashes in my 
skin, with the scalding pepper tea, which was yet so hot 
that he could not hold his hand in it. This doubly- 
burning liquid was thrown into my raw and bleeding 
wounds, and produced a tormenting smart, beyond the 
description of language. After a delay of ten minutes 
by the watch, I received another dozen lashes, on the part 
of my back which was immediately above the bleeding 
and burning gashes of the former whipping; and again 
the biting, stinging pepper tea, was applied to my lacera- 



CHARLES BALL. 99 

ted and trembling muscles. This operation was continued 
at regular intervals, until I had received ninety-six lashes, 
and my back was cut and scalded from end to end. 
Every stroke of the whip had drawn blood ; many of the 
gashes were three inches long; my back burned as if it 
had been covered by a coat of hot embers, mixed with 
living coals ; and I felt my flesh quiver like that of ani- 
mals that have been slaughtered by the butcher, and are 
flayed whilst yet half alive. My face was bruised, and 
my nose bled profusely, for in the madness of my agony, 
I had not been able to refrain from beating my head vio- 
lently against the post. 

" Yainly did I beg and implore for mercy. I was kept 
bound to the post with my whole weight hanging upon 
my thumbs, an hour and a half, but it appeared to me 
that I had entered upon eternity, and that my. sufi"erings 
would never end. At length, however, my feet were 
unbound, and afterwards my hands; but when released 
from the cords I was so far exhausted as not to be able to 
stand, and my thumbs were stifi" and motionless. I was 
carried into the kitchen and laid on a blanket, where my 
mistress came to see me ; and after looking at my lacera- 
ted back, and telling me that my wounds were only skin 
deep, said I had come off well, after what I had done, 
and that I ought to be thankful that it was not worse 
with me. She then bade me not to groan so loud, nor make 
so much noise, and left me to myself. I lay in this con- 
dition until it was quite dark, by which time the burning 
of my back had much abated, and was succeeded by an 
aching soreness, which rendered me unable to turn over, 
or to bend my spine in the slightest manner. My 
mistress again visited mc, and brought with her about 
half a pound of fat bacow, which she mnde ono of the 



lUO THE ADVENTURES OF 

black woDien roast before the fire on a fork, until the oil 
ran freely from it, and then rub it warm over my back. 
This was repeated until I was greased from the neck to 
the hips, efi'ectually. An old blanket was thrown over 
me, and I was left to pass the night alone. Such was the 
terror stricken into my fellow slaves, by the example 
made of me, that, although they loved and pited me, not 
one of them dared to approach me during this night. 

*'My strength was gone, and I at length fell asleep, 
from which I did iiot awake until the horn was blown the 
next morning, to call the people to the corn crib, to 
receive their weekly allowance of a peck of corn. I did 
not rise, nor attempt to join the other people, and shortly 
.iftcrwards my master entered the kitchen, and in a soft 
and gentle tone of voice, asked me if I was dead. I 
answered that I was not dead, and making some effort, 
found I was able to get upon my feet. My master had 
become frightened when he missed me at the corn-crib, 
and being suddenly seized with an apprehension that I 
was dead, his heart had become softened, not with com- 
passion for my sufferings, but with the fear of losing his 
best field hand ; but when he saw me stand before him 
erect and upright, the recollection of the lost sheep 
revived in his mind, and with it all his feelings of revenge 
against the author of its death. 

" ^ So you arc not dead yet, you thieving rascal,^ said 
he; and cursing me with many bitter oaths, he ordered 
me to go along to the crib and get my corn, and go to 
work with the rest of the hands. I was forced to obey, 
and taking my basket of corn from the door of the crib, 
placed it in the kitchen loft, and went to the field with 
the other people. 

<' Weak and exhausted as I was, I was compelled to 



CHARLES BALL. 101 

do the work of au able hand, but was not permitted to 
taste the mutton, which was all given to the others, who 
were carefully guarded whilst they were eating, lest they 
should give me some of it/' 

This man's hack was not yet well. Many of the gashes 
made by the lash were yet sore, and those that were 
healed had left long white stripes across his body. He 
had notion of leaving the service of his tyrannical master, 
and his spirit was so broken and subdued, that he was 
ready to bear all his hardships; not, indeed, without 
complaining, but without attempting to resist his oppres- 
sors, or to escape from their power. I saw him often 
whilst I remained at this place, and ventured to tell him 
once, that if I had a master who would abuse me as his 
had abused him, I would run away. ^' Where could I 
run, or in what place could I conceal myself?" said he. 
*^ I have known many slaves who ran away, but they were 
always caught, and treated worse afterwards than they 
were before. I have heard that there is a place called 
Philadelphia, where -the black people are all free, but I 
do not know which way it lies, nor what road I should 
take to go there; and if I knew the way, how could I 
hope to get there ? would not the patrol be sure to catch 
me?" 

I pitied this unfortunate creature, and was at the same 
time fearful that in a short time I should be equally the 
object of pity myself. How well my fears were justified 
the sequel of my narrative will show. 



102 THE ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

We had been stationed in the old cotton-gin house 
about twenty days, had recovered from the fatigues of our 
journey, and were greatly improved in our strength and 
appearance, when our master returned one evening, after 
an absence of two days, and told us that we must go to 
Columbia the next day; and must, for this purpose, have 
our breakfast ready by sunrise. On the following morn- 
ing he called us at daylight, and we made all dispatch in 
preparing our morning repast, the last that we were to take 
in our present residence. 

As our equipments consisted of the few clothes we had 
on our persons, and a solitary blanket to each individual, 
our baggage was easily adjusted, and we were on the road 
before the sun was up half an hour; and in less than an 
hour we were in Columbia, drawn up in a long line in the 
street opposite the court-house. 

The town, which was small and mean looking, was full 
of people, and I believe that more than a thousand gen- 
tlemen came to look at us within the course of this day. 
We were kept in the street about an hour, and were then 
taken into the jail-yard and permitted to sit down; but 
were not shut up in the jail. The court was sitting in 
Columbia at this time, and cither this circumstance, or 
the intelligence of our arrival in the country, or both, had 
drawn together a> very great crowd of people. 

We were supplied with victuals by the jailer, and had 
a small allowance of salt pork for dinner. We slept in 
the jail at night, and as none of us had been sold on the 
day of our arrival in Columbia, and we had not heard any 
of the persons who came to look at us make proposals to 



CHARLES BALL. 103 

our master for our purchase, I supposed it might be hia 
intention to drive us still farther south, before he offered 
us for sale; but discovered my error on the second day, 
which was Tuesday. This day the crowd in town was 
much greater than it had been on Monday • and about ten 
o'clock^ our master came into the yard, in company with 
the jailer, and after looking at us some time, the latter 
addressed us in a short speech, which continued perhaps 
five minutes. In this harrangue he told us we had come 
to live in the finest country in the world; that South 
Carolina was the richest and best part of the United 
States J and that he was going to sell us to gentlemen who 
would make us all very happy, and would require us to do 
no hard work; but only raise cotton and pick it. He 
then ordered a handsome young lad, about eighteen years 
of age, to follow him into the street, where we observed a 
great concourse of persons collected. Here the jailer 
made another harrangue to the multitude, in which he 
assured them that he was just about to sell the most val- 
uable lot of slaves that had ever been ofi'ered in Columbia. 
That we were all young, in excellent health, of good 
habits, having all been purchased in Virginia, from the 
estates of tobacco planters; and that there was not one in 
the whole, lot who had lost the use of a single finger, or 
was blind of an eye.- 

He then cried the poor lad for sale, and the first 
bid he received was two hundred dollars. Others 
quickly succeeded, and the boy, who was a remarkably 
handsome youth, was stricken off in a few minutes to a 
young man who appeared not much older than himself, at 
three hundred and fifty dollars. The purchaser paid 
down his price to our master on a table in the jail, and 
the lad, after bidding us farewell, followed his new master 
with tears running down his cheeks. 



104 THE ADVENTURES OF 

lie next sold a young girl, about fifteen or sixteen 
years old, for two hundred and fifty dollars, to a lady who 
attended the sales in her carriage, and made her bids out 
of the window. In this manner the sales were continued 
for about two hours and a half, when they were adjourned 
. until three o'clock. In the afternoon they were again 
resumed, and kept oj^en until about five o'clock, when 
thoy were closed for the day. As my companions were 
sold they were taken from amongst us, and we saw them 
no more; 

The next morning, before day, I was awakened from 
my sleep by the sound of several heavy fires of canjion, 
which were discharged, as it seemed to me, within a few 
yards of the place where I lay. These were succeeded by 
fifes and drums, and all the noise with which I had form- 
erly heard the Fourth of July ushered in, at the Navy 
Yard in "Washington. 

Since I had left Maryland I had carefully kept the 
reckoning of the days of the week, but had not been 
careful to note the days of the month; yet, as soon as 
daylight appeared and the] door of our apartment was 
opened, I inquired, and learned that this was, as I had 
supposed it to be, the day of universal rejoicing. 

I understood that the court did not sit this <Jay, but a 
great crowd of people gathered, and- remained round the 
jail all morning; many of whom were intoxicated, and 
sang and shouted in honor of free government, and the 
rights of man. About eleven o'clock, a long table was 
spread under a row of trees which grew in the street, not 
far from the jail, and which appeared to be of the kind 
called in Pennsylvania the pride of China. At this table 
several hundred persons sat down to dinner, soon after 
noon; and continued to eat and drink, sing songs in honor 



CHARLES BALL. 105 

of liberty, for more than two hours. At the end of the 
dinner, a gentleman rose and stood upon his chair, near 
one end of the table, and begged the company to hear 
him for a few minutes. He informea them that he was a 
candidate for some office — but what office it was I do not 
recollect — and said, that as it was an acknowledged priaci- 
ple of our free government, that all men were born free 
and equal, he presumed it would not be deemed an act of 
arrogance in him, to call upon them for their votes at 
the coming election. 

The first speaker was succeeded by another, who ad- 
dressed his audience in nearly the same language; and 
after he had concluded the the company broke up. I 
heard a black man that belonged to the jailor, or who was 
at least in his service, say that there had been a great 
meeting that morning in the court house, at which several 
gentlemen had made speeches. 

When I lived at the Navy Yard, the officers permit- 
ted me to go up town with them, on the Fourth of July, 
and listen to the fine speeches that were made there on 
such occasions. 

About five o'clock the jailer came and stood at the front 
daor of the jail, and proclaimed, in a very loud voice, that 
a sale of most valuable slaves would immediately take 
place; that he had sold many fine hands yesterday, but 
they were only the refuse and most worthless part of the 
whole lot; that those who wished to get great bargains 
and prime property, had better attend now; as it was 
certain that such negroes had never been ofiered for sale 
in Columbia before. 

In a few minutes the whole assembly that had composed 
the dinner party, and hundreds of others,. were convened 
around the jail door, and the jailer again proceeded with 

J 



10^» THE ADVENTURES OF 

hifi auction. Several of the stoatest men and handsomest 
women in the whole company, had been reserved for this 
day; and I perceived that the very best of us were kept 
back for the last. We went off at rather better prices 
than had been obtained on the former day; and I per- 
ceived much eagerness amongst the bidders, many of whom 
were not sober. Within less than tfcree hours, only three 
of us remained in the jail; and we were ordered to come 
and stand at the door, in front of the crier, who made a 
most extravagant eulogium upon our good qualities, and 
capacity to perform labor. He said, ^^ These three fellows 
are as strong as horses, and as patient as mules; one of 
them can do as much work as two common men, and they 
arc perfectly honest. Mr.M'Giffin says he was assured 
by their former masters, that they were never known to 
steal or run away. They must bring good prices, gentle- 
men, or they will not be sold. Their master is deter- 
mined that if they do not bring six hundred dollars he 
will not sell them, but will take them to Georgia next 
summer, and sell them to some of the new settlers. 
These boys can do anything. This one, (referring to me,) 
can cut five cords of wood in a day, and put it up. He is 
a rough carpenter, and a first rate field hand. This one, 
(laying his hand on the shoulder of one of my compan- 
ions,) is a blacksmith, and can lay a plough-share, put new 
uteel upon an axe, or mend a broken chain.'' The other 
he recommended as a good shoe-maker, and well acquaint- 
ed with the process of tanning leather. 

We were all nearly of the same age, and very stout, 
healthy, robust young men, in full possession of our 
corporal powers; and if we had been shut up in a room 
•with ten of the strongest of those who had assembled to 
purchase us, and our liberty had depended on tying them 



CHARLES BALL. 



107 



fast to eacli other, I have no doubt that we should have 
been free, if ropes had been provided for us. 

After a few minutes of hesitancy amongst the purcha- 
sers, and a closer examination of our persons than had 
been made in the jail-yard, an elderly gentleman said he 
would take the carpenter; and the blacksmith and shoe- 
maker were immediately taken by others, at the required 
price. 

It was now sundown. The heat of the day had been 
very oppressive, and I was glad to be released from the 
confined air of the jail, and the hot atmosphere in which 
so many hundreds were breathing. My new master 
asked me my name, and ordered me to fo'low him. 
*- We proceeded to a tavern, where a great number of 
persons were assembled, at a short distance from the jail. 
My master entered the house, and joined in the conver- 
sation of the party, in which the utmost hilarity prevailed. 
They were drinking toasts in honor of liberty and inde- 
pendende, over glasses of toddy, a liquor composed of s 
mixture of rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. As I stood near 
the door, which, as well as the windows, was open, I could 
easily see all within, and hear all that was said. My mas- 
ter, whom I soon perceived to be a man of consideration, 
was chosen chairman of the assembly, an(i it was his dutj 
to read the toasts, as they were handed him by those who 
composed them. The toasts breathed nothing but liberty, 
freedom and independence; they proclaimed the citizens 
of the United States to be, not only the most free people 
in the world, and the only inhabitants of the globe -wlio 
Had ever enjoyed true liberty, but South Carolina was 
held forth as the chosen abode of the genius of humanity 
and equality. The wonderful deeds South Carolina had 
performed in the war of the revolution, were extolled and 
mac:nificd. 



lOS THK ADVE-VIL'RES OF 

T bdll rooollect the bearing of many of the toasts :— 
"Tho pride of Great Britain humhleJ by the valor of 
South Carolina." <^ South Carolina — her sons caused the 
British Lion to quail, when all others trembled in his pres- 
ence.'' *' South Carolina — the land of liberty and equality 
— death to the tyrant who shall attempt to enslave his 
fellow man." Uttering such sentiments as these, drink- 
ing their toddy, and talking of the cotton crops, was the 
business of the evening; and in all my life, I have never 
before, or since, heard so much boasting, and so many 
protestations of valor and liberty. I well remember, that 
this scene impressed a belief upon mind, at the time, that 
the people of South Carolina had really acted the chief 
part in the war of the revolution; and that had it not 
been for them, the British would certainly have con- 
quered the country. 

I was particularly attentive to these toasts, as my new 
master read them from the little strips of paper that were 
handed to him; and it appeared to me, from the correct- 
ness with which he proclaimed thorn, that he felt the full 
force of the sentiments they conveyed; that he was a true 
disciple of the principles expressed by these sharp and 
pithy sentences; and that I had fallen into the hands, not 
of a hard and unfeeling master, who would tyrannise over 
me as a slave not entitled to the rights or the laws of hu- 
manity; but a of kind and benevolent friend of mankind, 
whose chief delight would be to alleviate my sufferings, 
redoeni me frnm my abject condition, and raise me to tns 
rank of a man. 

It was ten o'cUek at night, before my master and his 
companions had finished their toasts and toddy; and all 
this time I had been standing before the door, or sitting 
on a log of wood thnt lay in front of the house. At one 



CHARLES BALL. 109 

time I took a seat on a bench, at the side of the house; 
but was soon driven from this position by a gentleman in 
military clothes, with a large gilt epaulet on each shoulder, 
and a profusion of glittering buttons ; who passing near 
me in the dark, and happening to east his eye on me, 
demanded of me, in an imperious tone, how I dared to sit 
on that seat. I told him I was a stranger, and did not 
know that it was wrong to sit there. He then ordered me 
with an oath, to begone from there; and said if he cau^-ht 
me on that bench again he would cut my head off. <-Did 
you not see white people sit upon that bench, you saucy 
rascal?" said he. I assured him I had not seen any 
white gentlemen sit on the bench, as it was near night 
when I came to the house ; that I had not intended to bo 
saucy, or misbehave myself; and that I hoped he -would 
not be angry with me, as my master had left me at tlie 
door, and had not told me where I was to sit. He then 
drew a sword from its 'scabbard, suspended at his side, 
and flourishing it over my head, told me to take care of 
myself, or he would treat me as his father had treated the 
British in the last war. 

I was much afraid, from the manner of the man, who 
was evidently intoxicated, that he would do me some 
injury with his sword; but I was soon relieved of my 
apprehensions; for he had scarcely concluded hi^ threat, 
of treating me as his father had treated the British, when 
an old man in plain clothes, whom I had not observed, 
advanced from behind me, and said — "The way your 
father treated the British in the last war, Major? What 
did your father do to the British? He did nothing but 
supply them with provisions, and act as a spy for them ; 
and if Sergeant Williams and I had caught him, at the 
time we chased him across the Wateree, we would have 

J* 



110 THi: ADVENTURES OF 

hung hiiii with a supple jack, Major ! Say but little about 
your fullior, Major. You know that he, and two-thirds of 
all tlic planters on Saluda river, were tories in the time of 
the war; and that if they had received their deserts, they 
would all have been hanged together." 

I expected to see the Major bury his sword up to the 
hilt, in the body of the old man; but instead of this, he 
quietly returned his weapon to its scabbard, and said, in a 
cool and subdued tone of voice — ^^Mr. Jones, it is not 
worth while to be raking up old stories; and it is not 
right, iTccause a man's father happened to make a mistake 
find get upon the wrong side in the war, to cast it up to 
his son at this day. If this thing had any harm in it, 
very few of us would escape. How many members of 
Congress are there in South Carolina, and how many 
members of the Legislature, whose fathers thought it 
wrong to fight against the king? 

"You know very well, Mr. Jones, that if Green and his 
army had not come amongst us, you and your friends 
would have starved in the swamp?*. It is useless to talk 
of these things now, and bring scandal upon a man be- 
cause his father did not know which side would prove the 
strongest. Come, and I will treat; and let this matter be 
.••C'ttlcd." Mr. Jones said he did not wish to drink, and 
bade him good night. 

1 now thought that there was no, danger of being again 
interrupted b^ tlie Major, if I did sit on the bench; but 
lest there might be others in the house, professing the 
same feelings as the Major, I thought it safer to take a 
»?nt on the log. 

J remained on the log until the termination of the fes- 
tivv.l in honor of liberty and equality; when my master 
came {>.< the door, and observed in my hearing, to some of 



CHARLES BALL. Ill 

hi« friends, that they had celebrated the day in a hand- 
some manner; but for his part, he was not able to see 
what had been gained by the revolution ; and if the matter 
were left to him, he should pay no more regard to the 
Fourth of July, than to any other day. ''I recollect 
very well,^' said he, ^Hhat before the revolution, we used 
to celebrate the king's birth-day just as we now do the 
Fourth of July; and I took more pleasure in the old than 
I do in the new custom. I was then very young, a mere 
boy, and entered into the affair with all my heart ; and I. 
am sure, we were much happier then than we are now. 
We drank the king'g health, asserted the honor and glory 
of old England, anathematized the French, and pledged 
the union of church and state. There was something 
respectable in all this. A man of property was sure to 
be of consideration, and to have weight in the affairs of 
the colony. There was none of this speech making in 
honor of independence ; nor any of this clamor for liberty 
and equalit}^, with which we are now annoyed. Why sir, 
if the principles of the Constitution of the United States 
could be carried into full effect, they would set all our 
slaves free, and raise them to a level with ourselves, in 
the exercise of all legal and political rights. I hate this 
Constitution: it contains the seeds of the ruin of the 
South. It ought to have guaranteed to the Southern 
states, in express words, the right of holding slaves; but 
instead of this, the word slave never once appears in the 
whole instriiment; and it asserts that a citizen of one state 
shall be entitled to the rights of a citizen in all the states. 
'^The right of holding slaves ought to have been 
reserved, expressly by plain words, to the southern states. 
The time will come when we shall have difficulty on this 
subject; and it will be contended by fanatics and disor- 



112 THK ADVENTURES OF 

ganisers, that one man cannot have a right of property 
in the person of another; that all men are by nature 
equally free; and that the black man has as much right 
to reduce the white man to the condition of a slave^ as 
the white man has to sell the black man for life. This 
Constitution will destroy the rights of the states; and in 
a short time the state governments wnll be unable to pre- 
serve the rights and property of their citizens. The 
British are our best customers; they buy our cotton and 
our indigo, and we must buy their manufactured goods. 
It was a foolish thing in us, to quarrel with them about 
a duty of three pence a pound upon ftur tea.'' 

The above is the substance of the obesrvations of my 
master, as well as I can recollect them, after a lapse of 
nearly thirty years; but they made a deep impression 
upon my mind, not only by their novelty to me, (for I 
had never heard those persons with whom I had lived in 
Maryland, speak of the Constitution of the United States, 
but with respect and veneration,) but also because the 
persons who stood about the door, and within the sound of 
my master's voice, listened to him very attentively, and 
seemed to regard all he said with, great deference and 
respect; though this sentiment was not, by any means, 
universal in Columbia; for my master and his friends 
were frequently interrupted, in the course of the evening, 
by persons marching in the streets, with military music, 
who, when they came near to our tavern, did not fail to 
give loud and repeated cheers to the tories, by which appel- 
lation I understood my master and his company were 
designated. 

No person, except the military gentleman, had spoken 
to mo, since I came to the house in the evening with my 
master, who seemed to have forgotten me; for he remained 



CHARLES BALL. 113 

at the door warmly engaged in couversatioa on various 
political subjects^ a full hour after he rose from the toast 
party. At lenght, however, I heard him say — ^'I bought 
a negro this evening — 1 wonder where he is/' Rising 
immediately from the log on which I had been so long 
seated, I presented m3^self before him, and said, ^'Here 
master/' He then ordered me to go to the kitchen of the 
inn and go to sleep ; but said nothing to me about supper. 
I retired to the kitchen, where I found a large number of 
servants, who belonged to the house; and amongst them 
two young girls, who had been purchased by a gentleman 
who lived near Augusta ; and who, they told me, intended 
to set out for his plantation the next morning, and take 
them with him. 

These girls had been sold out of our company on the 
first day ; and had been living in the tavern kitchen since 
that time. They appeared quite contented, and evinced 
no repugnance to setting out the next morning for their 
master's, plantation. They were of that order of people 
who never look beyond the present day ; and so long as 
they had plenty of victuals in this kitchen, they did not 
trouble themselves with reflections upon the cotton field. 

One of the servants gave me some cold meat, and a 
piece of wheaten bread, which was the first I had tasted 
since I left Maryland, and indeed it was the last that I 
tasted, until I reached Maryland again. 

I here met with a man who was born and brought up in 
the northern neck of Virginia, on the banks of the Poto- 
mac, and within a few miles of my native place. We 
soon formed an acquaintance, and sat up nearly all night. 
He was the chief hostler in the stable of this tavern; 
and told me, that he had often thought of attempting to 
escape, and- return to Virginia. He said he had little^ 



114 THE ADVENTURES OF 

doubt of being able to reach the Potomac ; but haying no 
knowledge of the country beyond that river, he was afraid 
that he should not be Able to make his way to Philadel- 
phia ; which he regarded as the only place in which he 
could be safe from the pursuit of his master. I was my- 
self then young, and my knowledge of the country north 
of Baltimore, was very vague and undefined. I, however, 
told him, that I had heard, that if a black man could 
reach any part of Pennsylvania, he would be beyond the 
reach of his pursuers. He said he could not justly com- 
plain of want of food ; but the services required of him 
were so unreasonable, and the punishment frequently in- 
flicted upon him, so severe, that he was determined to set 
out for the North, as soon as the corn was so far ripe as to 
be fit to be roasted. He felt confident, that by lying in 
the woods and unfrequented places all day, and travelling 
only by night, he could escape the vigilance of all pursuit, 
and gain the Northern Neck, before the corn would be 
gathered from the fields. He had no fear of wanting food, 
as he could live well on roasting ears, as long as the corn 
was in the milk; and afterwards, on parched corn, as long 
as the grain remained in the field. I advised him, as well 
as I could, as to the best means of reaching the state of 
Pennsylvania; but was not able to give him any very 
definite instructions. 

This man possessed a very sound understanding ; and 
having been five years in Carolina, was well acquainted 
with the country. He gave me such an account of the 
Bufferings of the slaves on the cotton"and indigo planta- 
tions—of whom I now regarded myself as one — that I 
was unable to sleep any this night. From the resolute 
manner in which he spoke of his intended elopement; 
and the regularity with which he had connected the vari- 



CHARLES BALL. 115 

0U3 combinations of the enierprize ; I have no doubt, that 
he undertook that which he intended to perform. Wheth- 
er he was successful or not, in the enterprize, I cannot 
say ; as I never saw him, nor heard of him, after the next 
morning. 

This man certainly communicated to me, the outlines 
of the plan, which I afterwards put in execution ; and by 
which I gained my liberty, at the expense of sufferings, 
which none can appreciate, except those who have borne 
all that the stoutest human constitution can bear, of cold 
and hunger, toil and pain. The conversation of this slave 
aroused in my breast so many recollections of the past, 
and fears of the future, that I did not lie down ; but sat 
on an old chair, until day light. 

From the people of the kitchen, I again receiyed some 
cold victuals for my breakfast ; but I did not see my maS' 
ter, until about nine o'clock ; the toddy of the last eve^- 
ing, causing him to sleep late this morning. At length, a 
female slave gave me notice that my master wished to see 
me in the dining room, whither I repaired without a mo- 
ment's delay. When I entered the room he was sitting 
near a window, smoking a pipe, with a very long handle ; 
I believe more than two feet in length. 

He asked no questions, but addressing me by the title 
of ^'boy/' ordered me to go with the hostler of the inn, 
and get his horse and chaise ready. As soon as this order 
could be executed, I informed him that his chaise was at 
the door ; and we immediately commenced our journey to 
the plantation of my master ; which he told me, lay at a 
distance of twenty miles from Columbia. He said I must 
keep up with him ; and as he drove at the rate of five or 
six miles an hour, I was obliged to run nearly half the 
time; but I was then young, and could easily travel fifty 



ll'j THE ADVENTURE.? OF 

or sixty 111 ilea iu a day. It was with great auxietj that 
I looked fur the plaeC; which was in future to be my home; 
but this did not prevent me from making such observa- 
tions upon the state of the country through which we 
travelled, as the rapidity of our march permitted. 

Thi.s whole region had originally been one vast wilder- 
ness of pine forest, except the low grounds and river bot- 
toms, here called swamps ; in which all the varieties of 
trees, shrubs, vines and plants, peculiar to such places in 
southern latitudes, vegetated in unrestrained luxuriance. 
Nor is pine the only timber that grows on the uplands in 
this part of Carolina; although it is the predominant tree, 
and in some places, prevails to the exclusion of every 
other— oak, hickory, sassafras, and many others are found. 
Here also, I first observed groves of the most beautiful 
of all the trees of the wood— the great Southern Magno- 
lia, or Green Bay. No adequate conception can be formed 
of the appearance, or the fragrance of this most magnificent 
tree, by any one who has not seen it; or scented the air, 
when tainted by thp perfume of its flowers. It rises in a 
right Ime, to the heigh^ of seventy or eighty feet; the 
etem is of a delicate taper form, and casts off numerous 
branches, m nearly right angles with itself; the extremi- 
ties ot which, decline gently towards the ground, and be- 
come shorter and shorter in the ascent, until at the apex 
of the tree, they are scarcely a foot in length ; whilst be-' 
low, they are many times, found twenty feet loner The 
immen.se cones formed by these trees, are as perfect as 
those dimmutive forms which nature exhibits in the bur 
of the pme tree. The leaf of the Magnolia is smooth, of 
^an oblong taper form, about six inches in length, and half 
as broad^ Its color is the deepest and purest green. The 
foliage of the bay tro. i. .. i„.pe..ious as a bLk wall "o 



CHARLES BALL. 117 

the rajs of the sun ; and its refreshing coolness in the heat 
of a summer day, affords one of the greatest luxuries of a 
cotton plantation. It blooms in May, and bears great 
numbers of broad, expanded white flowers, the odor of 
which is exceedingly grateful, and so abundant, that I 
have no doubt, that a grove of these trees in full bloom, 
may be smelt at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. I 
have heard it asserted in the South, that their scent has 
been perceived by persons fifty or sixty miles from them. 

This tree is one of nature ^s most splendid, and in the 
climate where she has placed it, one of her most agreeable 
productions. It is peculiar to the southern temperate lat- 
itudes, and cannot bear the rigors of a northern winter; 
though I have heard that groves of the Bay are found on 
Fishing Creek, in Western Virginia, not far from Wheel- 
ing, and near the Ohio river. Could this tree be natural- 
ized in Pennsylvania, it would form an ornament to her 
towns, cities, and country seats ; at once the most tasteful, 
and the most delicious. A forest of these trees in the 
month of May, resembles a wood enveloped in an untimely 
fall of snow at midsummer; glowing in the rays of a 
morning sun. 

We passed this day, through cotton fields and pine 
woods alternately ; but the scene was sometimes enlivened 
by the appearance of lots of corn and sweet potatos, 
which I observed were generally planted near the houses. 
I afterwards learned that this custom of planting the corn 
and potatoes near the house of the planter is general over 
all Carolina. The object is to prevent the slaves from 
stealing; and thus procuring more food, than by the lawa 
of the plantation, they are entitled to. 

In passing through a lane, I this day saw a field, which 
appeared to me to contain about fifty acres, in which peo- 
K 



116 ihH ADVENTURES OF 

pie were ut work with Loes, amongst a sort of plants that 
I had never seen before. I asked my master what this 
was, and he told me it was indigo, I shall have occasion 
to say more of this plant hereafter. 

AVe at length arrived at the residence of my master; 
who descended from his chaise, and leaving me in charge 
of the horse at the gate, proceeded to the house, across a 
long court yard. In a few minutes, two young ladies and 
a young gentleman came out of the house, and walked to 
the gate, near which I was, with the horse. One of the 
ladies said they had come to look at me, and see what 
kind of boy her pa had brought home with him. The 
other one said I was a very smart looking boy; and this 
compliment flattered me greatly ; they being the fii-st kind 
words that, had been addressed to me since I left Mary- 
land. The young gentleman asked me if I could run fast 
and if 1 had ever picked cotton. His manner did not 
impress me so much in his favor, as the address of his 
sister had done for her. These three young persons were 
the son and daughters of my master. After looking at me 
a short time, my young master, (for so I must now call 
him,) ordered me to take the harness from the horse, give 
him water at a well which was near, and come into the 
kitchen, where some boiled rice was given me for ni}" din- 
ner. 

I was not required to go to work this first day of my 
abode in my new residence ; but after I had eaten my 
rice, my young master told me I might rest myself, or 
walk out and see the plantation, but that I must be ready 
to go with the overseer the next morning. 



CHARLES BALL, 119 



CHAPTER IX. 

By the laws of the United States, I am still a slave ; 
and though I am now growing old, I might even yet be 
deemed of sufficient value to be worth pursuing, as far as 
my present residence , if those to whom the law gives the 
right of dominion over my person and life, knew where to 
find me. For these reasons, I have been advised by those 
whom I believe to be my friends, not to disclose the true 
names of any of those families, in which I was a slave, in 
Carolina, or Georgia, lest this narrative should meet their 
eyes, and in some way, lead them to a discovery of my 
retreat. 

I was now the slave of one of the most wealthy plant- 
ers in Carolina ; who planted cotton, rice, indigo, corn and 
potatos ; and was the master of two hundred and sixty 
slaves. 

The description of one great cotton plantation, will 
give a correct idea of all others; and I shall here present 
an outline of that of my master. 

He lived about two miles from Cangaree river; which 
bordered his estate on one side, and in the swamps of 
which were his rice fields. The country hereabout is very 
flat ; the banks of the river are low ; and in wet seasons, 
large tracts of country are flooded by the superabundant 
waters of the river. There are no springs; and the only 
means of procuring water on the plantations, is from wells, 
which must be sunk in general, about twenty feet deep, 
before a constant supply of water can be obtained. My 
master had two of these wells on his plantation ; one at the 
mansion house, and one at the quarter. 

My master's house was of brick, (brick houses are by 



120 THE ADVENTURES OF 

no means common amongst the planters, whose residenees 
are generally built of frame work, weather-boarded with 
pine boards, and covered with shingles of the white cedar 
or juniper cypress,) and contained two large parlors, and 
a spacious hall or entry on the ground floor. The main 
building was two stories high; and attaclited to this was a 
smaller building, one story and a half high, with a large 
room, where the family generally took breakfast j with a 
kitchen at the farther extremity from the main building. 

There was a spacious garden behind the house, contain- 
ing 1 believe, about five acres, well cultivated and hand- 
somely laid out. In this garden grew a great variety of 
vegetables ; some of which I have never seen in the mar- 
ket of Philadelj^hia. It contained a profusion of flowers, 
three different shrubberies, a vast number of ornamental 
and small fruit trees, and several small hot houses with 
glass roofs. There was a head gardener, who did nothing 
but attend to this garden through the year ; and during 
the summer he generally had two men and two boys to 
assist him. In the months of April and May, this garden 
was one of the sweetest and most pleasant places that I 
ever was in. At one end of the main building was a small 
bouse, called the library, in which my master kept his 
books and papers, and where he spent much of his time. 

At some distance from the mansion, was a pigeon house, 
and near the kitchen was a large wooden building, called 
the kitcKen quarter, in which the house servants slept; 
and where tlicy generally took their meals. Here, also, 
the washing of the family was done; and all the rough 
or unpleasant work of the kitchen department — such as 
cleaning and salting fish, putting up pork, &c. — was 
assigned to this place. 

There was no barn on this plantation, according to the 



CHARLES BALL. 121 

acceptation of the word ham in Pennsylvania; but there 
was a wooden building about forty feet long, called the 
coach house; in one end of which the family carriage and 
the chaise in which my master rode, were kept. Under 
the same roof, was a stable, sufficiently capacious to con- 
tain ten or twelve horses. In one end of the .building, 
the corn intended for the horses was kept ; and the whole 
of the loft or upper story, was occupied by the fodder or 
blades and tops of the corn. 

About a quarter of a mile from the dwelling house, 
wore the huts or cabins of the plantation slaves, or field 
hands, standing in rows; much like the Indian villages 
which I have seen in. the country of the Cherokees. 
These cabins were thirty-eight in number ; generally about 
fifteen or sixteen feet square ; built of hewn logs ; cover- 
ed with shingles, and proyided with floors of pine boards. 
These houses were all dry and comfortable, and were pro- 
vided with chimneys ; so that the people when in them, 
were well sheltered from the inclemencies of the weather. 
In this practice of keeping their slaves well sheltered at 
night, the southern planters are pretty uniform ; for they 
know that upon this circumstance, more than any other in 
that climate, depends the health of the slave, and conse- 
quently his value. 

In these thirty-eight cabins, were lodged two hundred 
and fifty people, of all ages, sexes and sizes. Ten or 
twelve were generally employed in the garden and about 
the house. 

At a distance of about one hundred yards from the lines 
of cabins, stood the house of the overseer ; a small two 
story log building, with a yard and garden attached to it, 
of proportionate dimensions. This small house was the 
abode of a despot, more absolute, and more cruel than 



122 THE ADVENTURES OF 

were any of those we read of in the Bible^ who so griev- 
ously oppressed the children of Israel. In one corner of 
the overseer's garden stood the corn crib, also a log build- 
ing, in which was stored up the corn, constituting the 
yearly provisions of the colored people, fn another cor- 
ner of the same garden, was a large vault covered with 
sods, very like some ice-houses that I have seen. This 
was the potato house ; and in it were deposited the sweet 
potatos, also, intended to supply the people. 

At a short distance beyond the garden of the overseer, 
stood a large building, constituting the principal feature 
in the landscape of every great cotton plantation. This 
was the house containing the cotton-gin ; and the sheds to 
contain the cotton, when brought from the field in the 
seed ; and also the bales, after being pressed and prepared 
for market. 

As I shall be obliged to make frequent references to the 
cotton-gin, it may perhaps be well to describe it. For- 
merly there was no way of separating the cotton from the 
seed, but by pulling it off with the fingers — a very tedious 
and troublesome process — but some one from the North, 
at length, discovered the gin, which is a very simple, 
though very powerful machine. It is composed of a 
wooden cylinder, about six or eight feet in length 3 sur- 
rounded at very short intervals with small circular saws ; 
in such a manner, that as the cylinder is turned rapidly 
round by a leather strap on the end, similar to a turner's 
lathe, the teeth of the saws in turning over continually, 
cut downwards in front of the cylinder, which is placed 
close to a long hopper, extending the whole length of the 
cylinder, and so close to it that the seeds of the cotton 
cannot pass between them. This cylinder revolves with 
almost inconceivable rapidity; and great caution is neces- 



CHARLES BALL. 123 

sary in working with the gin, not to touch the saws. One 
end of the cylinder and hopper being slightly elevated, 
the seeds as they are stripped of the wool, are gradually, 
but certainly, moved toward the lower end, where they 
drop down into a heap ; after being as perfectly divested 
of the cotton, as they could be by the most careful picking 
with the fingers. 

The rapid evolutions of the cylinder, are procured by 
the aid of cogs and wheels; similar to those used in small 
grist mills. 

It is necessary to be very careful in working about a 
cotton-gin ; more especially in removing the seeds from 
before the saws ; for if they do but touch the hand, the 
injury is very great. I knew a black man, who had all 
the sinews of the inner part of his right hand torn out — 
some of them measuring more than a foot in length — and 
the flesh of his palm cut into tatters, by carelessly putting 
his hand too near the saws, when they were in motion, 
for the idle purpose of feeling the strength of the current 
of air created by the* motions of the cylinder. A good 
gin will clean several thousand pounds of cotton in the 
seed, in a day. To work the gin two horses are necessa- 
ry ; though one is often compelled to perform the labor. 

There was no smoke house, nor any other place for 
curing or preserving meat attached to the quarter; and 
whilst I was on this plantation no pork was ever salted for 
the use of the slaves. 

After remaining in the kitchen some time, I went into 
the garden and remained with the gardener, assisting him 
to work until after sundown ; when my old master came 
to the gate and called one of the garden boys to him. 
The boy soon returned, and told me I must go with him 
to the quarter, as his master had told him to take me to 



1-24 TTIE ADVENTURES OF 

the overseer. When wo arrived at the overseer's house, 
he had not yet returned from the field ; but in a few min- 
utes ^Ye saw him coming at some distance through a cot- 
ton field, followed by a great number of black people. 
As he approached u-a, the boy that was with me handed 
him a sniill piece of paper which ho can-ied in his hand, 
and without saying a word, ran back towiird the house, 
leaving me to become acquainted with the overseer in the 
best way I could. Bat I found this to be no difficult task; 
for he had no sooner glanced his eye over the piecf^f 
paper, than turning to me, he asked me my name; and 
calling to a middle-aged man who was passing us' at some 
distance, told him he must take me to live with him, and 
that my supper should be sent to me ffom his own house. 

I followed my new friend to his cabin, which I found 
to be the h ibitation of himself, his wife and five children. 
The only furniture in this cabin, consisted of a few blocks 
of wood for seats ; a short bench, made of a pine board, 
which served as a table, and a small bed in one corner 
composed of a mat, made of common rushes, spread upon 
some corn husks, pulled and split into fine pieces, and 
kept together by a narrow slip of wood, confined to the 
floor by wooden pins. There was a common iron pot 
standing beside the chimney; and several wooden spoons 
and dishes hung against the wall. Several blankets also 
hung against the wall upon wooden pins. An old box 
made of pine boards, without either lock or hinges, occu- 
pied one corner. 

At the time I entered this humble abode the mistress 
was not at home. She had not yet returned from the 
field; having been sent, as the husband informed me, with 
some other people late in the evening, to do some work in 
a field about two miles distant. I found a child about a 



CHARLES BALL. 125 

year old, lying on the mat-bed, and a little girl about four 
years old sitting beside it. 

These children were entirely naked, and when we came 
to the door, the elder rose from its place and ran to its 
father, and clasping him round one of his knees, said, 
'^Now we shall get good supper/' The father laid his 
hand upon the head of his naked child, and stood silently 
looking in its face — which was turned upwards toward his 
own for a moment — and then turning to me, said, "Did 
you leave any children at home?'' The scene before me 
— the question propounded — and the manner of this poor 
man and his child, caused my heart to swell until my 
breast seemed too small to contain it. My soul fled back 
upon the wings of fancy, to my wife's lowly dwelling in 
Maryland ; where I had been so often met on a Saturday 
evening, when I paid them my weekly visit, by my own 
little ones, who clung to my knees for protection and sup- 
port, even as the poor little wretch now before me seized 
upon the weary limb of its hapless and destitute father, 
hoping that naked as he was, (for he too was naked, save 
only the tattered remains of a pair of old trowsers,) he 
would bring with his return at evening its customary 
scanty supper. I was unable to reply; but stood motion- 
less, leaning against the walls of the cabin. My children 
seemed to flit by the door in the dusky twilight; and the 
twittering of a swallow^ which at that moment fluttered 
over my head, sounded in my ear as the infantile tittering 
of my own little boy ; but on a moment's reflection I 
knew that we were separated without the hope of ever 
again meeting ; that they no more heard the welcome 
tread of my feet, and could never again receive the little 
gifts with which, poor as I was, I was accustomed to pre- 
sent them. I was far from the place of my nativity, in a 



120 THE ADVENTURES OF 

land of strangers, with no one to care for me, beyond the 
care that a master bestows upon his ox ; with all my fu- 
ture life, one long, waste, barren desert, of cheerless, hope- 
less, lifeless slavery j to be varied only by the pangs of 
hungep and the stints of the lash. 

My revery was at length broken by the appearance of 
the mother of the family, with her three eldest children. 
The mother wore an old ragged shift; but the children, 
the eldest of whom appeared to be about twelve, and the 
youngest six years old, were quite naked. When she 
came in, the husbana told her that the overseer had sent 
mo to live with them; and she and her oldest child, who 
was a boy, immediately set about preparing their supper, 
by boiling some of the leaves of the weed called lambs- 
quarter, in the pot. This, together with some cakes of 
cold corn bread, formed their supper. My supper was 
brought to me from the house of the overseer, by a small 
girl, his daughter. It was about half a pound of bread, 
cut from a loaf made of corn meal. My companions gave 
me a part of their boiled greens, and we all sat down 
together to my first meal in my new habitation. 

I had no other bed than the blanket which I had 
brought with me from Maryland ; and I went to sleep in 
the loft of the cabin, which was assigned to me as my 
sleeping room ; and in which I continued to lodge as long 
as I remained on this plantation. 

The next morning I was waked at the break of day 
by the sound of a horn, which was blown very loudly. 
Perceiving that it was growing light, I came down and 
went out, immediately in front of the house of the over- 
seer, who was standing near his own gate, blowing the 
horn. In a few minutes, the whole of the working people 
from nil the cabins, wrre assembled; and as it was now 



CHARLES BALL. 127 

light enough for me distinctly to see such objects as were 
about me; I at once perceived the nature of the servitude 
to which I was in future to be subject. 

As I have before stated, there were altogether on this 
plantation, two hundred and sixty slaves ; but the number 
was seldom stationary for a single week. Births were 
numerous and frequent, and deaths were not uncommon. 
When I joined them, I believe we counted in all, two 
hundred and sixty-three; but of these, only one hundred 
and seventy went to the field to work. The others were 
children too small to be of any service as laborers; old 
and blind persons, or incurably diseased. Ten or twelve 
were kept about the mansion house and garden, chosen 
from the most handsome and sprightly of the gang. 

I think about one hundred and sixty-eight assembled 
this morning at the sound of the horn — two or three being 
sick, sent word to the overseer that they could not come. 

The overseer wrote something on a piece of paper, and 
gave it to his little son. This I was told was a note to be 
sent to our master, to inform him that some of the hands 
were sick — it not being any part of the duty of the over- 
seer to attend to a sick negro. 

The overseer then led off to the field, with his horn in 
one hand and his whip in the other; we following — men, 
women and children, promiscuously — and a wretched 
looking troop we were. There was not an entire garment 
amongst us. 

More than half of the gang were entirely naked. Sev- 
eral young girls who had arrived at puberty, wearing only 
the livery with which nature had ornamented them, and a 
great number of lads of an equal or superior age, appear- 
ed in the same costume. There was neither bonnet, cap, 
nor head dress of any kind amongst us, except the old 



"128 THE ADVENTURES OF 

straw hut thiit I wore; and -svliicli ni}' wife bad made for 
me in 3Iaryland. This I soon laid aside to avoid the ap- 
pearance of singularity and, as owing to the severe treat- 
ment I had endured whilst travelling in chains, and heing 
compelled to sleep on the naked floor without undressing 
myself, my clothes were quite worn out; I did not make a 
much better figure than my companions ; though still I 
preserved the semblance of clothing so far, that it could 
be seen that my shirt and trowsers had once been distinct 
and separate garments. Not one of the others had on 
even the remains of two pieces of apparel. Some of the 
men had old shirts, and some ragged trowsers, but no one 
wore both. Amongst the women several wore petticoats, 
and many had shifts. Not one of the whole number wore 
both of these vestments. 

We walked nearly a mile through one vast cotton field 
before we arrived at the place of our intended day's labor. 
At last the overseer stopped at the side of the field, and 
calling to several of' the men by name, ordered them to 
call their companies and turn into their rows. The work 
we had to do to-day, was to hoe and weed cotton for the 
last time ; and the men whose names had been called, and 
who were, I believe, eleven in number, were designated as 
captains, each of whom had under his command a certain 
number of the other hands. The captain was the foreman 
of his company, and those under his command had to 
keep up with him. Each of the men and women had to 
take one row; and two, and in some cases where they were 
very small, three of the children had one. The first cap- 
tain whose name was Simon, took the first row — and the 
other captains were compelled to keep up with him. By 
this means the overseer had nothing to do but to keep 
Simon hard at work, and he was certain that all the others 
must work equally hard. 



CHARLES BALL. 129 

Simon was a stout strong man, apparently about thirty- 
five years of age ; and for some reason unknown to me, I 
was ordered to take the row next to his. The overseer 
with his whip in his hand, walked about the field after us 
to see that our work was well done. As we worked with 
hoes, I had no difficulty in learning how the work was to 
be performed. 

The fields of cotton at this season of "ffie year are veij 
beautiful. The plants amongst which we worked this day' 
were about three feet high, and in full bloom, with bran- 
ches so numerous that they nearly covered the whole 
ground — ^leaving scarcely space enough between them to 
permit us to move about and work with our hoes. 

About seven o'clock in the morning, the overseer sound- 
ed his horn, and we all repaired to the shade of some per- 
scimmon trees which grew in a corner of the field, to get 
our breakfast. I here saw a cart drawn by a yoke of 
oxen, driven by an old black man nearly blind. The cart 
contained three barrels filled with water, and several large 
baskets full of corn bread, that had been baked in the 
ashes. The water was for us to drink, and the bread was 
our breakfast. The little son of the overseer was also in 
the cart, and had brought with him the breakfast of his 
father, in a small wooden bucket. 

The overseer had bread, butter, cold ham and coiFee for 
his breakfast. Ours was composed of a corn cake, weigh- 
ing about three quarters of a pound to each person, with 
as much water as was desired. I at first supposed that 
this bread was dealt out to the people as their allowance ; 
but on further inquiry I found this not to be the case. 
Simon, by whose side I was now at work, and who seemed 
much pleased with my agility and diligence in my duty, 
told me that here, as well as every where in this country, 

XJ 



ISO OllE ADVENTURJSS 0^ 

each person received a pock of corn at tlie crib door every 
Sunday evening, and that in ordinary times, every one 
had to grind this corn and bake it, for him or herself, 
making such use of it as the owner thought proper; but 
that for some time past, the overseer, for the purpose of 
saving the time which had been lost in baking the bread, 
had made it the duty of an old woman, who was not capa- 
ble of doing much -work in th.e field, to stay at the quar- 
ter and bake the bread of the whole gang. When baked 
it was brought t-o tbe field in a cart, as I saw, and dealt 
out in loaves. 

They still had to grind their own corn after night ; and 
as there were only three hand-mills on the plantation, he 
said they experienced much difficulty in converting their 
corn into meal. We worked in this field all day; and at 
the end of every hour, or hour and a quarter, we had per- 
mission to go to the cart, which was moved about the field, 
so as to be near us, and get water. 

Our dinner was tlie same in all respects, as our break- 
fast, e:scept, that in addition to the bread, we had a little 
salt and a radish for each person. We were not allowed 
to rest at either breakfast or dinner, longer than while we 
,were eating ; and we worked in the evening as long as we 
could distinguish the weeds from the cotton plants. 

Simon informed me, that formerly, ^hen they baked 
their own bread, they hj,d left their work soon after sun- 
down, to go home and bake for the next day, but the 
overseer had adopted the new policy for the purpose of 
keeping them at work until dark. 

When we could no longer see to work, the horn was 
again sounded, and we returned home. I had now lived 
through one of the days — a succession of which make up 
the life erf a slave — on a cotton plantation. 



CHARLES BALL, 131 

As we went out in the morning, I observed several 
women, who carried their young children in their arms to 
the field. These mothers laid their children at the side 
of the fence, or under the shade of the cotton plants, 
whilst they were at work ; and when the rest of us went 
to get water, they would go to give suck to their children, 
requesting some one to bring them water in gourds, which 
they were careful to^arry to the field with them. One 
young woman did not, like the others, leave her child at 
•the end of the row, but had contrived a sort of rude 
knapsack, made of a piece of coarse linen cloth, in which 
she fastened her child, which was very young, upon her 
back ; and in this way carried it all day, and performed 
her task at the hoe with the other people. 

I pitied this woman; as we were going home at night, 
I came near her, and spoke to her. Perceiving as soon 
as she spoke, that she had not been brought up amongst 
the slaves of this plantation — for her language was diflfer- 
ent from theirs— I asked her why she did not do as the 
other women did, and leave her child at the end of the 
row in the shade. ''Indeed,'^ said she, ''I cannot leave 
my child in the weeds amongst the snakes. What would 
be my feelings if I should leave it thero, and a scorpion 
were to bite it ? Besides, my child cries so -piteously, 
.when I leave it alone in the field, that I cannot bear to 
iiear it. Poor thing, I wish we were both in the grave, 
where all sorrow is forgotten.'* 

I asked this woman, who did not appear to be more than 
twenty years old, how long sbe had been here, and where 
she came from. ^'I have been here,*' said she, ^'almost 
two years, and came from the Eastern Shore. I once lived 
&s we^l as any lady In Maryland. I was born a slave, in 
' the family of a gentleman whose name was Le Gempt. 



- 



132 THE ADVENTURES 0^ 

My master was a man of property ; lived on his estate, 
and entertained much company. My mistress, who was 
very kind to me, made me her nurse, when I was about 
ten years old, and put me to live with her own children. 
I grew up amongst her daughters; not as their- equal and 
companion, hut as a favored and indulged servant. I was 
always well dressed, and received a portion of all the del- 
icacies of their table. I wanted nothing, and had not the 
trouble of providing even for myself I believe there was 
not a happier being in the world than T was. At present, 
none can be more wretched. 

''When I was yet a child, my master had given me to 
his oldest daughter, who was about one year older than I 
was. To her, I had always looked as my future mistress ; 
and expected, that whenever she became a wife, I should 
follow her person, and cease to be a member of the family 
of her father. When I was almost seventeen, my young 
mistress married a gentleman of the Eastern Shore of 
Virginia, who had been addressing her more than a year. 
^'Soon after the wedding was over, my new master re- 
moved his wife to his own residence ; and took me and a 
black boy of my own age, that the lady's father had given 
her, with him. He had caused it to be reported in Mary- 
land, that he was very wealthy; and was the owner of a 
plantation, with a large stock of slaves and other property. 
It yaa supposed at the time of the marriage, that my " 
young mistress was making a very good match, and all 
hor friends were pleased with it. When her lover came 
to visit her, he always rode in a handsome gig, accompanied 
by a black man on horseback, as his servant. This man 
told UH in tho kitchen, that his master was one of the 
most fashionable men in A^'irginia; was a man of large ' 
fortune, and that all the yougg ladies in the county he 



CHARLKS BAXL. 133 

lived in, had their eyes upon kim. These stories I re- 
peated carefully to my young mistress ; and added every 
persuasion that I could think of, to induce her to accept 
her lover as her husband. My feelings had becoms 
deeply int^ested in the issue of this matter ; for whilst 
the master was striving to win the heart of my young 
mistress, the servant had already concpiered mine. 

''It was more than a hundred miles from the residence 
of my old master, to that of my young one ; and when 
we arrived at the latter place, my mistress and I goon 
found, that we had been eqiially credulous, and were 
equally deceived. We were taken to an old dilapidated 
mansion, which was quite in keeping with every thing on 
the estate to which it was attached. The house was 
almost without furniture; gjid there were no servants in 
it, except myself and my companion. TJje black mam 
who had so effectually practiced upon me, belonged to one 
of my new master's companions — and had a wife and 
three children in the neighborhood, 

"My mistress soon discovered that her husband's com- 
panions, were gamblers and horse-racers; who frequently 
convened at her house, to concert or matuiie some scheme, 
the object of which was to cheat some one. 

^*My old master was a member of the church, and was 
very scrupulous in the observanc-e of his moral duties. 
His precepts had been deeply implanted in the mind of 
my young mistress ; and the society of tliese sportsmen, 
(as the friends of my young niaster denominated them- 
selves,) became so revolting to her feelings, that after she 
had been married nearly a year, and had exhausted all 
her patience and all her fortitude, in endeavoring to re- 
claim ber husband from the vile associations and pursuits, 
by which his time and his affoctndns were engaged, shd 



234 TllF. ADVE^'TURES OF 

acteriniuea ut last, to return to her father for a time, and 
to take mo with her, for the purpose of ascertaining 
whether this would not bring him to reflect upon the 
wrong he had done her, as well as himself. 

"She communicated to me her designs, and we were 
waiting for an opportunity of carrying them into effect, 
when one evening, near sun-down, my master came to me 
in the kitchen, and told me he wished me to go to the 
house of a gentleman, who lived about a mile distant, and 
deliver a letter for him, without letting my mistress know 
any thing of the matter. I immediately set out, expect- 
ing to return in half an hour. As I left the house I saw' 
my mistress in the garden -, and I never saw her again. 

"Between the house of my master, and that to which 
he had sent me, was a grove of young pine trees, that had 
grown up in a field, that had formerly been cultivated , 
but which had been neglected, on account of its poverty, 
for many years. Through this thicket, the path which I 
had to travel, led; and when near the middle of the wood, 
I saw a white man step into the path, only a few yards 
before me, with a rope in his hand. Sometime before 
this, my mistress had told me, that she wished to get me 
back to her father's house in Maryland, because she was 
nfr.'iid that my master would sell me to the negro buyers; 
and the moment I saw the man with the rope, in my path, 
the words of my mistress were recollected. 

"I screamed, and turned to fly towards home , but at 
the first step, was met by the colored man, who had at- 
tended my master as his servant, when he visited Mary- 
land, at the time he was courting my mistress — and who 
li'.id made so deep an impression on my heart. This was 
the first time I had seen l^m, since I came to live in Vir- 
ginia; nnd bn.-o as T knew he must be, from his former 



CHARLES BALL. 135 

conduct to me^ yet at sight of him, my formej affection 
for a moment revived, and I rushed into his arms, which 
were extended towards me, hoping that he would save me 
from the danger I so much dreaded from behind. He 
saw that I was frightened, and had fled to him for protec- 
tion, and only said, 'come with me.' I followed him, 
more by instinct than by reason, and holding to his arm, 
ran as fast as I could- — I knew not whither. I did not 
observe whether we were on the path or not. I do not 
know how far we had run, when he stopped, and said — we 
must remain here for some time. 

'^In a few minutes, the white man whom I had seen in 
the path, came up with us, and seizing me by the hands, 
he and my pretended protector bound them together at 
my back, and to suppress my cries, tied a large handker- 
chief round my head, and over my mouth. It was now 
becoming dark, and they hurried out of the wood, and 
across the fields, to a small creek, the water of which fell 
into the Chesapeake Bay. Here was a boat, and another 
white man in it. They forced me on board; and the 
white man taking the oars, whilst the black managed the 
rudder, we were quickly out in the bay, and in less than 
an hour, I was on board a small schooner, lying at anchor, 
where I found eleven others, who like myself, had been 
dragged from their homes and their friends, to be sold to 
the southern traders. 

'^I have no doubt, that my master had sold me without 
the knowledge of my mistress; and that he endeavored 
to persuade her, that I had run away ; perhaps he was 
successful in this endeavor. 

''I heard no more of my mistress, for whom I was very 
sorry, for I knew she would be greatly distressed at losing 
me. 



rj6 lUE ADVENTURES OF 

*'The vessel remained at anchor where we found her 
that night, and the next day until eyening, when she 
made gail, and beat up the bay all night against a head 
wind. When she approached the western shore, she hois- 
ted a red handkerchief at her mast head, and a boat came 
off from the land, large enough to carry us all, and we 
were removed to a house on the bank of York river, 
where I found about thirty men and women, all impris- 
oned in the cellar of a small tavern. The men were in 
irons, but the women were not bound with anything. 
The cords and handkerchief had been taken from me, 
whilst on board the vessel. We remained at York river 
more than a week ; and whilst there, twenty-five or thirty 
persons were brought in and shut up with us. 

^'When we commenced our journey for the South, we 
were about sixty in number. The men were chained 
together, but the women were all left quite at liberty. 
At the end of three weeks, we reached Savana^h river, 
opposite the town of Augusta, where we were sold out by 
our owner. Our present master was there, and purchased 
me and another woman, who has been at work in the field 
to-day. 

''Soon after I was brought home, the overseer compelled 
me to be married to a man 1 did not like. He is a native 
of Africa, and still retains the manners and religion of 
his country. He has not been with us to-day, as he is 
Bick, and under the care of the Doctor. I must hasten 
home to get my supper, and go to rest ; and glad I should 
bo, if I were never to rise again. 

"I have several times been whipped unmercifully, 
because I was not strong enough to do as much work with 
the hoe as the other women, who have lived all their lives 
on this plantation, and have been accustomed from their 
infancy to work in the field. 



CHARLES EALL, 137 

^'For a long time after I was brought here, I thought it 
would be impossible for me to live on the coarse and scanty 
food with which we are supplied. When I contrast my 
former happiness with my present misery, I pray for 
death to deliver me from my sufferings/' 

I was deeply affected by the narrative of this woman, 
and as we had loitered on our way, it was already dark, 
whilst we were at some distance from the quarter; but 
the sound of the overseer's horn here interrupted our 
conversation — at hearing which, she exclaimed, ^^we are 
too late, let us run, or we shall be whipped,'^ and setting 
off as fast as she could carry her child, she left me alone. 
A moment's reflection, however, convinced me, that I too 
had better quicken my pace — I quickly passed the woman 
encumbered with her infant, and arrived in the crowd of 
the people, sometime, perhaps a minute before her. 



CHAPTER X. - 

At the time I joined the company, the overseer was 
calling over the names of the whole, from a little book ; 
and the first name that I heard was that of my companion 
whom I had just left, which was Lydia — called by him, 
Lyd. As she did not answer, I said, ^^Master, Lydia, the 
woman that carries the baby on her back, will be hero in 
a minute — I left her just behind." The overseer took no 
notice of what I said, but went on with his roll-call. 

As the people answered to their names, they passed off 
to the cabins, except three — two women and a man ; who, 
when their names were called, were ordered to go into the 



188 THE ADVENTUBES OF 

yard, in front of the overseer's house. My name was the 
last on the list ; and when it was called I was ordered 
into the yard with the three others. Just as we had en- 
tered, Lydia came up out^ of breath, with the child in her 
arms; and following us into the yard, dropped on her 
knees before the overseer, and begged him to forgive her. 
''Where have you been?" said he. Poor Lydia now burst 
into tears, and said, ' 'I. only stopped to talk a while to 
this man," pointing to me; *'but indeed, master overseer, 
I will never do so again." ''Lie down," was his reply. 
Lydia immediately fell prostrate upon the ground ; and in 
this position, he compelled her to remove her old tow linen 
shift, the only garment she wore, so as to expose her hips, 
when he gave her ten lashes with hi,s long whip, every 
touch of which brought blood, and a shriek from the suf- 
ferer. He then Ordered her to go and get her supper, 
with an injunction never to stay behind again. The other 
three culprits, were then put upon their trial. 

The first was a middle aged woman, who had, as her 
overseer said, left several hills of cotton in the course of 
the day, without cleaning and hilling them in a proper 
manner. She received twelve lashes. The other two 
were charged in general terms with having been lazy, and 
of having neglected their work that day. Each of these 
received twelve lashes. 

These people all received punishment in the same man- 
ner that it had been inflicted upon Lydia ; and when they 
were all gone, the overseer turned to me and said — "Boy, 
you are a stranger here yet, but I called you in, to let you 
see how things are done here, and to give you a little 
advice. "When I get a new negro under my command, I 
never whip at first; I always give him a few days to learn 
hiB duty, unless he is an outrageous villain, in which case 



CHARLES BALL. 139 

I anoint him a little at the beginning. I call over the 
names of all the hands twice every week, on Wednesday 
and Saturday evenings, and settle with them according to 
their general conduct for the last three days. I call the 
names of my captains every morning, and it is their busi- 
ness to see that they have all their hands in their proper 
places. You ought not to have staid behind to-night with 
Lyd ; but as this is your first offence, I shall overlook it, 
and you may go and get your supper." I made a low 
bow, and thanked master overseer for his kindness to me, 
and left him. This night for supper, we had corn bread 
and cucumbers; but we had neither salt, vinegar, nor 
pepper with the cucumbers. 

I had never before seen people flogged in the way our 
overseer flogged his people. This plan of making the 
person, who is to be whipped, lie down upon the ground, 
was new to me, though it is much practised in the South ; 
and I have since seen men and women too, cut nearly in 
pieces, by this mode of punishment. It has one advan- 
tage over tying people up by the hands, as it prevents all 
accidents from sprains in the thumbs or wrists. I have 
known people to hurt their joints very much, by strug- 
gling, when tied up by the thumbs or wrists, to undergo a 
severe whipping. The method of ground whipping, as it 
is called, is, in my opinion, very indecent, as it compels 
females to expose themselves in a very shameful manner. 

The whip used by the overseers on the cotton planta- 
tions, is different from all other whips that I have ever 
seen. The staff is about twenty or twenty-two inches in 
length, w^ith a large and heavy head, which is often loaded 
with a quarter, or half a pound of lead, wrapped in cat- 
gut, and securely fastened on, so that nothing but the 
greatest violence can separate it from the staff. The lash 



140 TiiK adventuhes of 

is teu feet long, made of small strips of buckskin, tanned 
80 as to be dry and hard; and plaited carefully and closely 
together, of the thickness in the largest part of a man's 
little finger, but quite small at each extremity. At the 
farthest end of this thong, is attached a cracker, nine 
inches in length, made of strong se\ying silk, twisted and 
knotted, until it feels as fii'm as the hardest twine. 

This whip in an unpractised hand, is a very awkward 
and inefficient weapon ; but the best qualification of the 
overseer of a cotton plantation, is the ability of using this 
whip with adroitness ; and when wielded by an experien- 
ced arm, it is one of the keenest instruments of torture 
ever invented by the ingenuity of man. The cat-of-nine- 
tails, used in the British military service, is but a clumsy 
instrument beside this whip; which has superseded the 
cow-hide, the hickory and every other species of lash on 
the cotton plantations. The cow-hide and hickory, bruise 
and mangle the flesh of the sufi"ercr ; but this whip cuts 
when expertly applied, almost as keen as a knife, and 
never bruises the flesh, nor injures the bones. 

It was now Saturday night; and I wished very much 
for Sunday morning to come, that I might see the manner 
of spending the Sabbath, on a great cotton plantation. I 
expected, that as these people had been compelled to work 
so hard, and fare so poorly all the week, they would be 
inclined to repose themselves on Sunday ; and that the 
morning of this day would be passed in quietness, if not 
in sleep, by the inhabitants of our quarter. No horn was 
blown by the overseer, to awaken us this morning, and I 
slept in my little loft, until is was quite day ; but when I 
came down, I found our small community a scene of uni- 
versal bustle and agitation. 

Here it is necessary to make my readers acquainted 



CHARLES BALL. 141 

with the rules of polit}^, which governed us on Sunday^ 
(for I now speak of myself^ as one of the shaves on this 
phantation^) and with the causes which gave rise to these 
rules. 

All over the South^ the slaves are discouraged^ as much 
as possible, and by all possible means^ from going to any 
place of religious worship on Sunday. This is to prevent 
them from associating together, from different estates, and 
distant parts of the country; and plotting conspiracies 
and insurrections. On some estates, the overseers are re- 
quired to prohibit the people from going to meeting off 
the plantation, at any time, under the severest penalties. 
White preachers cannot come upon the plantations to 
preach to the people, without first obtaining permission of 
the master, and afterwards procuring the sanction of the 
overseer. No slave dare leave the plantation to which he 
belongs, a single mile, without a written pass from the 
overseer or master ; but by exposing himself to the danger 
of being taken up and flogged. Any white man who 
meets a slave off the plantation, without a pass, has a 
right to take him up, and flog him at his discretion. All 
these causes combined, operate powerfully, to keep the 
slave at home. But, in addition to these principles of 
irestraint, it is a rule on every plantation, that no overseer 
ever departs from, to flog every slave, male or female, that 
leaves the estate for a single hour, by night or by day — 
Sunday not excepted — without a written pass. 

The overseer, who should permit the people under his 
charge, to go about the neighborhood without a pass, 
would soon lose his character, and no one would employ 
him ; nor would his reputation less certainly suffer, in the 
estimation of the planters, were he to fall into the prac- 
tice of granting passes, except on the most urgent occa- 
M 



142 THE ADVENTURES, OP 

eions ; and for purposes generally to be specified in the 
pass. 

A cotton planter has no more idea of permitting his 
slaves to go at will, about the neighborhood on Sunday, 
than a farmer in Pennsylvania has of letting his horses 
out of his fields on that day. Nor would the neighbors 
be less inclined to complain of the annoyance in the 
former, than in the latter case. 

There has always been a strong repugnance amongst the 
planters, against their slaves becoming members of any 
religious society. Not as I believe, because they are so 
maliciously disposed towards their people, as to wish to 
deprive them of the comforts of religion — ^provided the 
principles of religion did not militate against the princi- 
ples of slavery — but they fear that the slaves, by attend- 
ing meetings, and listening to the preachers, may imbibe 
with the morality they teach, the notions of equality and 
liberty, contained in the gospel. This_, I have no doubt, 
is the ground of all the dissatisfiiction, that the planters 
express with the itinerant preachers, who have from time 
to time, sought opportunities of instructing the slaves in 
their religious duties. 

The cotton planters have always, since I knew any thing 
of them, been most careful to prevent the slaves from 
learning to read; and such is the gross ignorance that 
prevails, that many of them could not name the four car- 
dinal points. 

At the time I first went to Carolina, there were a great 
many African slaves in the country ; and they continued 
to come in for several years afterwards. 1 became inti- 
mately acquainted with some of these men. Many of 
them believed there were several gods; some of whom 
were good, and others evil, and they prayed as much to 



CHARLES BALL. 143 

the latter aa to the former. I knew several, who must 
have been^ from what I have since learned; Mahomedans; 
though at that time, I had never heard of the religion of 
Mahomed. 

There was one man on this plantation, who prayed five 
times every day, always turning his face to the East, when 
in the performance of his devotions. 

There is, in general, very little sense of religious obli- 
gation or duty, amongst the slaves on the coiton planta- 
tions; and Christianity cannot be, with propriety, called 
the religion of these people. They are universally subject 
to the grossest and most abject superstition ; and uni- 
formly believe in witch-craft, conjuration and the agency 
of evil spirits in the affairs of human life. Far the 
greater part of them, are either natives of Africa, or the 
descendants of those who have always, from generation to 
generation, lived in the South, since their ancestors were 
landed on this continent; and their superstition, for it 
does not deserve the name of religion, is no better, nor is 
it less ferocious, than that which oppresses the inhabitants 
of the wildest regions of Negro-land. 

They have not the slightest religious regard for the 
Sabbath day ; and their masters make no efforts to impress 
them with the least respect for this sacred institution. 
My first Sunday on this plantation, was but a prelude to 
all that followed ; and I shall here give an account of it. 

At the time I rose this morning, it wanted only about 
fifteen or twenty minutes of sunrise ; and a large number 
of the men, as well as some of the women, had already 
quitted the quartei', and gone about the business of the 
day. That is, they had gone to work for wages for them- 
selves — in this manner : our overseer had, about two miles 
off, a field of near twenty acres, planted in cotton, on his 



144 THE ADVENTURES OF 

own account. He was the owner of this land; but as he 
had no slaves, he was obliged to hire people to work it for 
him, or let it lie waste. He had procured this field to be 
cleared, as I was told, partly by letting white men make 
tar and turpentine from the pine wood which grew on it ; 
and partly by hiring slaves to work upon it on Sunday. 
About twenty of our people went to work for him to day; 
for which he gave them fifty cents each. Several of the 
others, perhaps forty in all, went out through the neigh- 
borhood, to work for other planters- 

On every plantation, with which I ever had any ac- 
quaintance, the people arc allowed to make patches, as 
they are called, that is, gardens, in some remote and 
unprofitable part of the estate, generally in the woods, in 
which they plant corn, potatos, pumpkins, melons, &c. for 
themselves These patches they must cultivate on Sun- 
day, or let them go uncultivated, I think, that on this 
estate there were about thirty of these patches, cleared in 
the woods, and fenced — some with rails, and others with 
brush — the property of the various families. 

The vegetables that grew in these patches were always 
consumed in the families of the owners, and the money 
that was earned by hiring out was spent in various ways; 
sometimes for clothes, sometimes for better food than was 
allowed by the overseer, and sometimes for rum , but those 
who drank rum, had to do it by stealth. 

By the time the sun was up an hour, this morning, our 
quarter was nearly as quiet and clear of inhabitants as it 
had been at the same period on the previous day. 

As I hud nothing to do for myself, I went with Lydia, 
whose husband was still sick, to help her to work in her 
patch, which was about a mile and a half from our dwel- 
ling. We took with us some bread and a large bucket of 



CHARLES BALL, ' 145 

water; and worked all day. She had onions, cabbages, 
cucumbers, melons, and many other things in her garden. 

In the evening, as we returned home, we were joined 
by the man who prayed five times a day ; and at the going 
down of the sun, he stopped and prayed aloud in our 
hearing, in a language I did not understand. This man 
told me he formerly lived on the confines of a country, 
which had no trees nor grass upon it; and that in some 
places, no water was to be found for several days' journey. 
That this barren country was nevertheless inhabited by a 
race of men, who had many camels and goats, and some 
horses. They had no settled place of residence; but 
removed from one part of the country to another, in quest 
of places where green herbage was to be found; their 
chief food being the milk of their camels and goats ; but 
they also ate the flesh of these animals sometimes The 
hair of these people was not short and wooly, like that of 
the negroes; nor were they of a shining black. They 
were constantly at war with some of the neighboring 
people, and very often with his own countrymen. He 
was himself once taken prisoner by them, when a lad, in 
a great battle fought between them and his own people, 
in which his party were defeated. The victors kept him 
in possession more than two years, compelling him to 
attend to their camels and goats. 

Whilst he was with these people, they travelled a great 
way toward the rising sun; and came to a river, running 
through a country inhabited by yellow people, where the 
land was very rich, and produced great quantities of rice, 
such as grows here, and many other. kinds of grain. 

The people who had taken him prisoner, professed the 
game religion that he did; and it was forbidden by its 
precepts, for one man to sell another into slavery, who 



146 * TIIK ADVEXTURKS OF 

held the same faith with himself; otherwise he should 
have been sold to these yellow people. In the river of 
this country he saw alligators in great abundance, like 
those he had seen in Carolina; and the mosquitos were, in 
some places, so numerous, that it was difficult to breathe 
without inhaling them. 

'^When we turned the camels out to graze, we used to 
tie their fore-feet together, with a rope made of the hair 
of this animal, spun upon small sticks and twisted into a 
rope. Sometimes they broke these ropes, and slipped 
their feet out of its coils ; and it was then very difficult to 
retake them. They would sometimes strikes off at a trot 
across the open country, and we would be obliged to 
mount other camels, and follow them for a day or two, 
before we could retake them. I had been with these 
people so long, and being of the same religion with them- 
selves, had become so familiar with their customs and 
manner of life, that they seemed almost to regard me as 
one of their own nation, and frequently sent me alone in 
search of stray camels, giving me instructions how to 
direct my course so as to rejoin them ; for they never 
waited for me to return to them, at the place where I left 
them, if tlie beasts had consumed the bushes and geeen 
herbage growing there, before I came back. 

'^ When I had been a captive with them fully two 
years, we came one evening and encamped at a little well, 
the mouth of which was about a yard over, and the water 
in which was very sweet and good. 

''This well seemed to have been scooped out of the 
hard and flinty sand, with men's hands, and was scarcely 
more than fuur feet deep; though it contained an abun- 
dant supply of water. We encamped by this fountain all 
n'.ght; and I rcmombered that we had been at the same' 



CHARLES BALL. 14T 

placGj soon after I was made a prisoner; and that when 
we had formerly come to it^ we travelled with our backs 
to the mid-day sun. There was no herbage hereabout, 
except a few stunted and thorny bushes; and in wander- 
ing around in quest of something to eat, one of the best and 
fleetest camels entangled the rope which bound his fore-feet, 
amongst the bushes, and broke it. I found part of the 
rope fast to a bush in thq, morning; but the camel was at 
a great distance from us, towards the setting sun. 

^'The chief of our party ordered me' to mount another 
camel, and go with a long rope, in pursuit of the stray; 
and told mo that they should travel towards the south, 
that day, and encamp at a place where there was much 
grass. I went in pursuit of the lost camel, but when I 
came near him, he took off at a great trot over the coun- 
try; and I pursued him till noon, without being able to 
overtake him, or even to change the line of his march. 
His course was towards the southwest; and when I found 
it impossible to overtake him, as his speed was superior -to 
that of the beast I rode, I resolved to strive to accomplish 
that by stratagem, which force could not effect. I knew 
the beasts were both hungry; and that having received as 
much water as they could drink, the night before, they 
would devour with avidity, the first green herbage that 
they might meet with. 

"I slackened the speed of my camel, and followed at a 
letsure gait, after the one I pursued, suffering him to leave 
me behind him at a considerable distance. He still, how- 
ever, kept on in the same direction, and with nearly the 
same speed with which he had advanced all the morning; 
so that it became necessary for me to quicken my pace, to 
prevent him from passing out of my sight, and escaping 
from me altogether. 



148 THE ADVENTURES OF 

"About five o'clock in the afternoon, I came in sight of 
trees, the tops of which were only visible across the open 
plain. The camel I rode was now as desirous to advance 
rapidly, as his leader had been throughout the day. I was 
carried forward as quickly as the swiftest horse could trot; 
and awhile before sundown, I approached a small grove of 
tall straighttrees, which are greatly valued in Africa, and 
which bear large quantities of nuts of very good quality. 
Under and about these, .was a small tract of ground cov- 
ered with long gi-een grass; and here my stray camel 
stopped. 

<<I have no doubt that he had scented the odor of this 
grass, soon after I first gave chase to him in the morning ; 
though the distance at which he was from it was so great, 
that the best horse could not have travelled it in one day. 
When I came up to the trees, I dismounted from the 
camel I rode, and tying his feet together with a short rope, 
preserved my long one for the purpose of taking the run- 
away. I gathered as many nuts as I could eat, and after 
satisfying my hunger, lay down to sleep. 

"This w^as the first time I had ever attempted to pass a 
night alone, in this open country; and after I had made 
my bed in the grass, I became fearful that some wild beast 
might fall in with me before morning, as I had often 
heard lions, and other creatures of prey, breaking the 
stillness of night, in those desolate regions, by their yells 
and roaring. I therefore ascended a tree, and placed 
myself amongst some spreading limbs, in such a position 
as to be in no danger of falling, even if I should be over- 
taken by sleep. 

"The moon was now full and in that country where 
there arc no clouds, and where there is seldom ever any 
dew, objects can be distinguished at the distance of seve- 



CHAKLES BALL. 149 

ral miles over the plainS; by moonliglit. When I had 
been in the tree about an hour, I heard at a great distance, 
a loud sullen noise, between a growl and a roar, which I 
knew to proceed from a lion, for I was well acquainted 
with the habits and noise of this animal, having frequently- 
assisted in hunting him in my own country. 

''I was greatly terrified by this circumstance; not for 
my own safety, for I knew that no beast of prey could 
reach me in the tree, but I feared that my camels might 
be devoured, and I left to perish in the desert. 

^^My fears were in part well founded; for keeping my 
eye steadily directed towards the point from which the 
sound had proceeded, it' was not long before I saw some 
object moving over the naked plain. 

"The runaway camel now joined his te^ered compan- 
ion, and both quitting the herbage, came and stood at 
the root of the tree, upon the branches of which I was. 
I still kept my eye steadily fixed upon the moving body, 
which was evidently advancing nearer to me over the 
plain. I had no longer any doubt that it was coming to 
the grove of trees, which were only twelve or fifteen in 
number, and so bare of branches that I could distinctly 
see in every direction around me. 

" In a few minutes the animal approached me. It was 
a monstrous lion, of the black maned species. It was now 
within one hundred paces of me,. and the poor camels 
raised their heads as high as they could towards me, and 
crouched close to the trunk of the tree, apparently so stu- 
pefied by fear, as to be incapable of attempting to fly. 
The lion approached with a kind of a circular motion; 
and at length dropping en his belly, glided along the 
ground, until within about ten yards of the tree, when 
utteriog a terrific roar, which shook the stillness of night 



150 THE ADVENTURES OF 

for many a league around, be sprang upon and seized the 
unbound camel by tbe neck. 

"Finding that I afforded no protection, the animal 
after striving in vain to shake off bis assailant, rushed 
out upon the open plain, carrying on bis back tbe 
lion, which I could perceive, had already fastened upon 
tbe throat of bis victim, which did not go more than a 
stone's cast from tbe trees, before be fell, and after a 
short struggle, ceased to move bis limbs. Tbe lion held 
the poor beast by tbe throat for some time after be was 
dead, and until, I suppose, tbe blood bad ceased to flow 
from bis veins; then cjuitting the neck, be turned to the 
side of tbe slain, and tearing a bole into tbe cavity of the 
body, extracted tbe intestines, and devoured tbe liver "and 
heart, before be began to gorge himself with tbe flesb 

"Tbe moon was now high in tbe Jieavens, and shone 
with such a brilliancy, that I could see distinctly for many 
miles round me. In that country, tbe smooth and glit- 
tering surface of tbe bard and baked sandy plains, reflects 
tbe light of the moon, as distinctly as a sheet of snow in 
the winter docs in this ; and the atmosphere being free 
from all humidity, is so clear and transparent, that I 
could perceive tbe quivering motion of tbe camel's lips, 
in bis last agony, as well as the tongue of the lion, when ^ 
be licked the blood from his paws. 

"As soon as my fright bad a little subsided, I looked 
for tbe surviving camel, which, to my terror, I could [not 
see, either at tbe foot of the tree on which I was, and 
where I had last seen it, or anywhere in the grove. 

" I now concluded, that in the alarm caused by tbe 
lion, and tbe destruction of bis companion, my surviving 
beast bad broken tbe cord which bound its feet, and had 
taken to flight, leaving me alone and without any means 



CHAllLES BALL, 1^1 

of escaping from the desert; for I had no hope of being 
able to reach, on foot, either the people with whom I 
had so long lired, or the inhabitants of the woody coun- 
tries, lying far to the south of me. No condition can be 
more miserable than that to which I was now reduced. 

'^My late masters were distant from me, at least one 
day's journey, on a swift camel; and were removing far- 
ther from me every day, as fast as their beasts could carry 
them; and I had no knowledge of the various watering 
places and spots of herbage, which lie scattered over the 
wide expanse of those unfrequented regions, in the midst 
of which I then was. I had not seen any water at this 
place since I came to it; and had not the poor consolation 
of knowing that I could remain here, and live on the fruit 
of the trees, until some chance should bring hither some 
of the wandering tribes that roam over these solitudes. 

"After a lapse of two or three hours, not being able to 
discover my living camel anywhere, although the moon 
had now passed her meridian, and shone with a, splendor 
which enabled me to distinguish small pebbles at some 
distance, I gave him up for lost, and again turned my 
attention to the lion, which still continued at intervals, to 
utter deep and sullen growls over his prey. I expected 
that at the approach of day the lion would leave the dead 
carcase, and retire to his lair in some distant place; and 
I determined to await the period of his departure, to de- 
scend the tree, and search for water among the grass, 
which rose in some places to the height of my shoulders. 

"I slept none this night; but from my couch in the 
boughs, watched the motions of the lion, which, after 
swallowing at least one third of the camel, stretched 
himself at full length on his belly, about twenty paces 
from it, and laying his head between his fore-feet, pre- 



152 THE ADVENTURES OF 

pared to guard his spoil against all intruders of the night, 
in this position he remained until the sun was up in the 
morning, and began to dart Iiis rays across the naked and 
parched plain, upon which he lay; when rising and strecth- 
ing himself, he walked slowly towards the grove, passed 
under me, went to the other side of the trees, and entered 
some very tall herbage, where I heard him lap water. I 
now knew that I was in no danger of dying from thirst, 
provided I could escape wild beasts, on my way to and 
from the fountain. 

^^The trees afforded me both food and shelter; but I 
quickly found myself deprived of tasting water, at the 
present; for the lion, after slaking his thist, returned by 
the same way that he had gone to the water, and coming 
to the tree in the boughs of which I lay, rubbed himself 
against its trunk, raising his tail, and exposing his sides 
alternately to the friction of the rough bark. After con- 
tinuing this exercise for some time, he rested his weight 
on his hind-feet, licked his breast, fore-legs and paws, and 
then lying down on his side in the shade, appeared to fall 
into a deep sleep. Great as my anxiety was to leave my 
present lodgings, I dared not attempt to pass the sentinel 
that kept guard at the root of the tree, even though he 
slept on his post; for whenever I made the least rustling 
in the branches, I perceived that he moved his ears, and 
opened his eyes, but closed the latter again when the 
noise ceased. 

^^The lion lay all day under the tree, only removing so 
as to place himself in the shade in the afternoon : but 
soon after the sun descended below the horizon in the 
evening, he aroused himself, and resting upon his hind- 
feet, as he had done in the morning, uttered a roar that 
shook all the leaves about my head, and caused a tremu- 



CHARLES BALL. 153 

lou3 motiou iu tlie brauches iipou which 1 rested. This 
horrid noise, together with the sight of the great beast 
that uttered it, so agitated my whole frame, that I was 
near leaping from my seat, and billing to the ground. I 
was so overcome with fear, that all prudence and self- 
possession forsook me; and I uttered a loud shout, as if 
in defiance of the monster below me. 

''The moment the lion heard my voice, he raised his 
head, looked directly at me with his fiery eyes, and crouch- 
ed down in the attitude of springing; but perceiving me 
to be quite out of the reach of his longest leap, he walked 
slowly off, and lay down about half way between me and 
the dead camel, with his head towards my tree. I had no 
doubt that his object was to watch me, until my descent 
from the tree, that he might make his supper of me this 
night, as he had of my camel, the night before. 

"I had now been without water two days — my thirst 
was tormenting, and I had no prospect before me but of 
remaining ii^this tree, until driven to delirium for water, 
I should voluntarily descend, and deliver myself into the 
jaws of my enemy. 

''The moon did not rise this night until long after the 
disappearance of day-light; but in the country where I 
then was, the stars shed such abundant light, that objects 
of magnitude can be seen at a great distance by their rays, 
without the aid of the moon. The lion moved frequently 
from place to place, but I could perceive that his attention 
was still fixed upon me;* at last, however, he started away 
across the plain, and went farther and farther from me, 
until at length I lost sight of him in the distance ; and all 
remained quiet and noiseless, in the immense expanse 
around me, as the land of the dead. 

"I now thought of descending, to go in quest of water ; 
N 



154 THE ADVENTURES OF 

but wliiltit I deliberated upon Ibid siibjoct tlie moon rose, 
and cast her broad and glorious light upon these wide 
fields of desolation. As I could now see every thing, I 
resolved to descend; but before doing this, thought it 
prudent to cast a look about me, to see if there might not 
be some other beast of prey near. This thought saved my 
life; for on turning my eyes in a direction quite diiferent 
from that in which the lion had departed, I saw him re- 
turning, within two or three stone's cast, creeping along 
the ground. I watched him, and he came and placed him- 
self between me and the water. 

'^AU was again silent; and I remained in the tree, 
burning with thirst, until the moon was elevated high in 
the heavens, when the silence was interrupted b}^ the 
roaring of a lion at a great distance, which was again re- 
peated after a short interval. At the end of half an hour 
I again heard the same lion, apparently not far off. Cast- 
ing my eye in the direction of the sound, I saw the beast 
advancing rapidly, as I thought, towards me, and began to 
apprehend that a whole den of lions were lying in wait for 
me. 

''The stranger soon undeceived me, for he was comino- 
to partake of the dead camel, whose flesh or blood he had 
doubtlessly smelt, though it was not putrid, for in this 
dry atmosphere, flesh is preserved a long time free from 
taint, and is sometimes dried in the sun in a state of per- 
fect soundness. I knew the nature of the lion too well, to 
suppose that the stranger was goin^ to got his supper free 
of cost; and before he had reached the carcase, my jailer 
quitted his post, and set oif to defend his acquisition of 
the last night. 

^<Tho new comer arrived first, and fell upon the dead 
^amol, with the fury of a hungry lion— as he was; but he 



CHARLES BALL. 155 

had scarcely swallowed a second morsel, wlien the rightful 
owner, uttering a roar yet more dreadful than any that 
had preceded it, leaped upon the intruder and brought 
him to the ground. For a moment I heard nothing but 
the gnashing of teeth, the clashing of talons, and the 
sounds caused by the laceration of the flesh and hides of 
the combatants; but anon, they rolled along the ground, 
and filled the whole canopy of heaven with their yells of 
rage — then the roaring would cease, and only the rending 
of the flesh of these lords of the waste could be heard — 
then the roaring would again burst forth with renewed 
energy. 

^^This battle lasted more than an hour ; but at length 
both appearing to be exhausted, they lay for some minutes 
on their sides, each with the other wrapped in his fierce 
embrace. In the end, I perceived that one of them rose 
and walked away, leaving the other upon the ground. 
The victor, which I could perceive was the stranger, for 
his mane was not black, returned to the remnant of the 
camel, and lay down panting beside it. After he had 
taken time to breathe, he recommenced his attack, and 
consumed far the larger part of the carcase. Having 
eaten to fulness, he took up the bones and remaining flesh 
of the camel, and set out across the desert — I followed him 
with my eye for more than an hour. 

"Parched as my throat was, but still afraid to descend 
from my place of safety, I remained on the tree until the 
light of the next morning, when I examined carefully 
around, to see that there was no beast of prey lurking 
about the place, where I knew the water to be. Perceiv- 
ing no danger, I descended before the sun was up, and 
going to the water, knelt down and drank a? long and as 
much as I thought I conld with safetv. 



15(1 TUE ADVEXTUKES OF 

"I then proceeded to make a more minute examination 
of this place, and saw numerous tracks of wild goats, and 
of other animals, that had come here, as well to drink as 
to eat the grass. I also saw the tracks of lions, and 
other beasts of prey, which satisfied me that these had 
come to lie in wait for other animals coming to drink ; it 
also convinced me that it was not safe for me to remain in 
this grove alone; hut I knew of no means by which I 
could escape from it. 

<'It now occurred to my mind, that if my living camel 
had not escaped from me, I might have made my way to 
my own country, for on my camel I had two leather bot- 
tles, which I had neglected to fill with water, the morning 
I left the company of my former masters. By replenish- 
ing these from the fountain, giving my camel as much as 
he could drink, and filling two small sacks attached to my 
saddle, with the nuts from these trees, I should have been 
equipped for a journey of ten days, within which period, 
I had no doubt, I should have been able to reach my own 
people J but my camel was gone, and these reflections ser- 
ved only to aggravate the bitterness of my anguish. 

^'I walked out upon the desert, and prayed to be deliv^ 
cred from the perils that environed me. At the distance 
of two or three miles from me, I now observed a small 
Band hill, rising to the height of eight or ten feet; easily 
perceived when looking along the level surface of the 
ground, but which had escaped my observation from my 
elevated post in the tree. Such sand hills are often found 
in those deserts, and sometimes contain the bones of men 
and animals that have been buried in them, 

^'In my situation, I could not remain idle ; and urged 
forward by restlessness, bordering on despair, I resolved 
to go to the little hill before me, without having any defi- 



CHARLES BALL. 157 

nite object in view. I soon approachsd the hill, and hav- 
ing reached its foot, walked along its base for some dis- 
tance. I then turned to go back to tho trees ; but after 
alvancing a few steps, was seized with a sudden impulse, 
which urged me to go to the top of the sand hill. I again 
turned and walked slowly to the summit, beyond which 
I saw only the same dreary expanse that I was so well 
used to look upon. Advancing along the top of this sand 
hill, which had been blown up by the wind in a long nar- 
row ridge, I saw a recess or hollow place on the side op- 
posite to that by which I had ascended it ; and on coming 
to this spot, beheld my camel crouched down close to the 
ground, with his neck extended at full length. My joy 
was unbounded — I leaped with delight, and was wild for 
some minutes, with a delirium of gladness. 

^'3Iy camel had fled from the grove at the time his 
companion was killed by the lion, and reaching this place, 
had here taken refuge, and had not moved since. I has- 
tened to loose his feet from the cords v/ith which I had 
bound them, mounted upon his back, and was quickly a4 
the watering place. I fillod my two water skins with 
water, and gathering as many nuts as my sacks would con- 
tain, caused my camel to take a full draught, and fill his 
stomach with grass, and then directed my course to the 
South, at a quick pace. 

*^It was now noon when I left this v/atering place ; and 
I travelled hard all that aay and the succeeding night, 
until the moon rose. I then alighted, and causing my 
camel to lie down, crept close to his side, and betook my- 
self to sleep. I rested well this night, and re-commencing 
my journey at the dawn of day, I pursued my route, 
without anything v>^orthy of relating happening to mo 
until the eighth day, when I discoveissd trees, and all the 
'Appearance of a woody country before me. 



168 THE ADVENTURES OF 

''Soon after entering the forest, I cam« to ft small 
stream of water. Descending this stream a few miles, I 
found some people who were cutting grass for the purpose 
of making mats to sleep on. These people spoke my own 
language, and told me that one of them had been in my 
native village lately. They took me and my camel to their 
village, and treated me very kindly; promising me that 
after I had recovered from my fatigue, they would go with 
me to my friends. 

^'My protectors vrere at war with a nation, whose reli- 
gion was different from ours ; and about a month after I 
came to the village, we were alarmed one morning, just at 
break of day, by the horrible uproar caused by mingled 
shouts of men, and blows given with heavy sticks, upon 
large wooden drums. The village was surrounded by ene- 
mies, who attacked us with clubs, long wooden spears, 
and bows and arrows. After fighting for more than an 
hour, those who were not fortunate enough to run away, 
were made prisoners. It was not the object of our ene- 
mies to kill ; they wished to take us alive, and sell us as 
slaves. I was knocked down by a heavy blow of a club, 
and when I recovered from the stupor that followed, I 
found myself tied fast with the long rope that I had 
brought from the desert, and in which I had formerly led 
i\\e camels of my masters. 

*'We were immediately led away from this village, 
through the forest, and were compelled to travel all day 
as fast as -we could walk. We had nothing to eat on this 
journey but a small quantity of grain, taken with our- 
selves. This grain we were compelled to carry on our 
bucks, and roast by the fires which we kindled at nights, 
to frighten away the wild beasts. We travelled three 
weeks in the woods — sometimes without any path at all; 



CHARLES BALL. 159 

and arrived one day at a large river, with a rapid current. 
Here we were forced to lielp our conquerors to roll a great V 
number of dead trees into the water, from a vast pile that 
had been thrown together by high floods, 

''These trees being dry and light, floated high out of 
the water J and when several of them were fastened 
together, with the tough branches of young trees, formed 
a raft, upon which we all placed ourselves, and descended 
the river for three days, when we came in sight of what 
appeared to me, the most wonderful object in the world ; 
this was a large ship at anchor in the river. When our 
raft came near the ship, the white people — for such they 
were on board — assisted to take us on deck, and the logs 
were suffered to float down the river. 

*'I had never seen white people before ; and they ap- 
peared to me the ugliest creatures in the world. The 
persons who brought us down the river, received payment 
for us of the people in the ship, in various articles, of 
which I remember that a keg of liquor, and some yards of 
: blue and red cotton cloth were the principal. At the time 
we came into this ship, she was full of black people, who 
were all confined in a dark and low place, in irons. The 
women were in irons as well as the men. 

"About twenty persons were seized in our village at the 
time I was ; and amongst these were three children, so 
young that they were not able to walk, or to eat any hard 
substance. The mothers of these children had brought 
them all the way with them ; and had them in their arms 
when we were taken on board this ship. 

''When they put us in irons, to be sent to our place of 
confinement in the ship, the men who fastened the irons 
on these mothers, took the children out of their hands, 
and threw them over the side of the ship, into the water. 



160 THE ADVENTURES OF 

When this was done, two of the women leaped overboard 
after the children — the third was already confined by a 
chain to another woman, and could not get into the water, 
but in struiro-linir to diseu<:^a2fe herself, she broke her arm, 
and died a few days after^ of a fever. One of the two 
women, who were in the river, was carried down by the 
weight of her irons before she could be rescued ; but the 
other vras taken up by some men in a boat, and brought 
on board. This woman threw herself overboard one night 
v>'hen we were at sea. 

^'The weather was very hot whilst we lay in the river, 
and many of us died every day ; but the number brought 
on board greatly exceeded those who died, and at the end 
of two weeks, the place in which we were confined was so 
full, that no one could lie down; and we were obliged to 
sit all the time, for the room was not hi2:h cnousrh for us 
to stand. When our prison would hold no more, the ship 
sailed down the river 3 and on the night of the second day 
after she sailed, I heard the roaring of the ocean as it 
dashed against her sides. 

^^Aftcr we had been at sea some days, the irons were 
removed from the women, and they were permitted to go 
upon deck ; but whenever the vrind blew high^ they were 
driven down amongst us. 

''We had nothing to eat but yams, which were thrown 
amongst us at random — and of these we had scarcely 
enough to support life. More than one third of us died 
on the passage ; and when we arrived at Charleston, I was 
not able to stand. It was more than a week after I left 
the ship, before I could straighten my limbs. I was 
bought by a trader, with several others; brought up the 
country, and sold- to our present master ; I have been here 
five vears." 



CHARLES BALL. 161 

CHAPTER XI. 

It was dusky twilight when this narrative was ended, 
and we hastened home to the quarter. When we arrived, 
the overseer had not yet come. He had been at his cot- 
ton field, with the people he had hired in the morning to 
work for him; but he soon made his appearance, and 
going into his house, came out with a small bag of money, 
and paid each one the price he had a right to receive. In 
this transaction the overseer acted with entire fairness to 
the people who worked for him; and with the exception 
of the moral turpitude of violating the Sabbath, in this 
shameful manner, the business was conducted with pro- 
priety. 

I must here observe, that when the slaves go out to 
work for wages on Sunday, their employers never flog 
them ; and so far as I know never give them abusive 
language. I have often hired myself to work on Sunday, 
and have been employed in this way by more than twenty 
different persons, not one of whom ever insulted or mal- 
treated me in any way. They seldom took the trouble of 
coming to look at me until towards evening, and some- 
times not then. I worked faithfully, because I knew if I 
did not, I could not expect payment; and those who hired 
me knew that if I did not work well, they need not em- 
ploy me. 

The practice 'of working on Sunday, is so universal 
amongst the slaves on the cotton plantations, that the 
immorality of the matter is never spoken of. 

We retired to rest this evening at the usual hour ; and 
no one could have known, by either our appearance or our 
manners, that this was Sunday evening. There were no 



162 THE ADVENTURES OF 

clean clothes amongst us; for few of our people were 
acquainted with the luxury of a suit of clean vestments, 
and those who could afford a clean garment, reserved it 
for Monday morning. Sunday is the customary wash-day 
on cotton plantations. 

It is here proper to observe, that it is usual, on the 
cotton estates, to deal out the weekly allowance of corn to 
the slaves, on Sunday evening; but our overseer, at this 
period, had changed this business from Sunday to Monday 
morning, for the reason, I believe, that he wished to keep 
the hired people at work on his own cotton field until 
night. He, however, soon resumed the old practice of 
distributing the allowance on Sunday evening, and con- 
tinued it as long as I remained on the estate. The busi- 
ness was conducted in the same manner, when performed 
on Sunday, as when attended to on Monday, only the 
time was changed. 

On ^Monday morning I heard the sound of the horn, at 
the usual hour, and repairing to the front of the over- 
seer's house, found he had already gone to the corn crib, 
for the purpose of distributing corn amongst the people, 
for the bread of the week, or rather, for the week's sub- 
sistence; for this corn was all the provision that our 
master, or his overseer, usually made for us; I say usually, 
for whatever was given to us, beyond the corn which we 
received on Sunday evening, was considered in the light 
of a bounty bestowed upon us, over and beyond what we 
were entitled to, or had a right to expect to receive. 

When I arrived at the crib, the door was unlocked and 
open, and the distribution had already commenced. Each 
person was entitled to half a bushel of cars of corn, which 
was measured out by several of the men who were in the 
crib. Every child above six months old drew this weekly 



CHARLES BALL. 163 

allowance of corn ; and in this way, v/omen who had sev- 
eral children, had more corn than they could consume, 
and sometimes bartered small quantities with the other 
people, for such things as they needed and were not able 
to procure. 

The people received their corn in baskets, old bags, or 
anything with which they could most conveniently pro- 
vide themselves. I had not been able, since I came here, 
to procure a basket, or anything else to put my corn in,' 
and desired the man with whom I lived to take my por- 
tion in his basket, with that of his family. This he 
readily agreed to do, and as soon as we had received our 
share we left the crib. 

The overseer attended in person to the measuring of 
this corn; and it is but justice to him to say, that he was 
careful to see that justice was done us. The men who mea- 
sured the corn always heaped the measure as long as an 
ear would lie on ; and he never restrained their generosity 
to their fellow slaves. 

In addition to this allowance of corn we received a 
weekly allowance of salt, amounting in general to about 
half a gill to each person; but this article was not fur- 
nished regularly, and sometimes we received none for two 
or three weeks. 

The reader must not suppose, that on this plantation 
we had nothing to eat beyond the corn and salt. This 
was far from the case. I have already described the gar- 
dens, or patches, cultivated by the people, and the practice 
which they universally followed, of working on Sunday 
for wages. In addition to all these, an industrious, man- 
aging slave would contrive to gather up a great deal to 
eat. 

I have before observe*, that the planters are careful of 



IGJ: THE ABVENTOKES OF 

the health of their slaves; and in pursuance of this rule, 
they seldom expose them to rainy weather, especially in 
the sickly seasons of the year, if it can be avoided. 

In the spring and early part of the summer, the rains 
are frequently so violent, and the ground becomes so wet, 
that it is injurious to the cotton to work it, at least whilst 
it rains. In the course of the year there are many of 
these rainy days, in which the people cannot go to work 
with safety; and it often happens that there is nothing 
for them to do in the house. At such a time they make 
baskets, brooms, horse collars, and other things, which 
they are able to sell amongst the planters. 

The baskets are made of wooden splits, and the brooms 
of young white oak or hickory trees. The mats are some- 
times made of splits, but more frequently of flags, as they 
are called — a kind of tall rush, which grows in swampy 
ground. The horse or mule collars are made of husks of 
corn, though sometimes of rushes, but the latter are not 
very durable. 

The money procured by these and various other means, 
which I shall explain hereafter, is laid out by the slaves 
in purchasing such little articles of necessity or luxury, aa 
it enables them to procure. A part is disbursed in pay- 
ment for sugar, molasses, and sometimes a few pounds of 
coffee, for the use of the family; another part is laid out 
for clothes for winter ; and no inconsiderable portion of 
his pittance is squandered away by the misguided slave for 
tobacco, and an occasional bottle of rum. Tobacco is 
deemed so indispensable to comfort, nay, to existence, that 
hunger and nakedness are patiently endured, to enable the 
slave to indulge in this highest of enjoyments. 

There being few taverns in the cotton country, the shops 
or stores are freqently kept at some cross road, or other 



CHARLES BALL. 165 

public place, in or adjacent to a rich district of planta- 
tions* To these shops the slaves resort, sometimes with, 
and at other times, without the consent of the overseer, 
for the purpose of laying out the little money they get. 
Notwithstanding all the vigilance that is exercised by the 
planters, the slaves, who are no less vigilant than their 
masters, often leave the plantation after the overseer has 
retired to his bed, and go to the store. 

The store-keepers are always ready to accommodate the 
slaves, who are frequently better customers than many 
white people ; because the former always pay cash, whilst 
the latter almost always require credit. In dealing with 
the slave, the shop-keeper knows he can demand whatever 
price he pleases for his goods, without danger of being 
charged with extortion ; and he is ready to rise at any 
time of the night, to oblige friends who are of so much 
value to him. 

It is held highly disgraceful, on the part of storekeep- 
ers, to deal with the slaves for anything but money, or the 
coarse fabrics, that it is known are the usual products of 
the ingenuity and industry of the negroes; but, notwith- 
standing this, a considerable tnifiic is carried on between 
the shop-keepers and slaves, in which the latter make 
their payments by barter. The utmost caution and sever- 
ity of masters and overseers, are sometimes insufficient to 
repress the cunning contrivances of the slaves. 

After we had received our corn, we deposited it in our 
several houses, and immediately followed the overseer to 
the same cotton field, in which we had been at work on 
Saturday. Our breakfast this morning, was bread, to 
which was added a large basket of apples, from the orchard 
of our master. These apples served us for a relish with 
our bread, both for breakfast and dinner, and when I 





166 THE ADVENTURES OF 

returned to the quarter in the evening, Dinah, (the name 
of the woman who was at the head of our family,) produ- 
ced at supper, a black jug, containing molasses, and gave 
me some of the molasses for my supper. 

T felt grateful to Dinah for this act of kindness, as I 
well knew that her children regarded molasses as the 
geatest of human luxuries, and that she was depriving 
them of their highest enjoyment, to afford me the means 
of making a gourd full of molasses and water. I there- 
fore proposed to her and her husband, whose name was 
Nero, that whilst I should remain a member of the family, 
I would contribute as much towards its support as Nero 
himself; or, at least, that I would bring all my earnings 
into the family stock, provided I might be treated as one 
of its members, and be allowed a portion of the proceeds 
of their patch or garden. This offer was very readily 
accepted, and from this time, we constituted one commu- 
nity as long as I remained among the field hands on this 
plantation. After supper was over, we had to grind our 
corn ; but as we had to wait for our turn at the mill, we 
did not get through this indispensable operation before 
one o'clock in the morning. We did not set up all night 
to wait for our turn at the mill, but as our several turns 
were assigned us by lotj the person who had the first turn 
when done with the mill, gave notice to the one entitled to 
the second, and so on. By this means, nobody lost more 
than half an hour's sleep, and in the morning every one's 
grinding was done. 

We worked very hard this week. We were now laying 
by the cotton, as it is termed ; that is, we were giving 
the last weeding and hilling to the crop, of which, there 
was on this plantation, about five hundred acres, which 
looked well, and promised to yield a fine picking. 



CHARLES BALL. 16T 

In addition to the cotton, there was on this plantation, 
one hundred acres of corn, about ten acres of indigo, ten 
or twelve acres in sweet potatos, and a rice swamp of about 
fifty acres. The potatos and indigo had been laid by, 
(that is, the season of working in them was past,) before 
I came upon the estate ; and we were driven hard by the 
overseer, to get done with the cotton, to be ready to give 
the corn another harrowing and hoeing, before the season 
should be too far advanced. Most of the corn in this 
part of the country, was already laid by, but the crop 
here, had been planted late, and yet required to be worked. 

We were supplied with an abundance of bread ; for a 
peck of corn, is as much as a man can consume in a week, 
if he has other vegetables with it , but we were obliged 
to provide ourselves with the other articles, necessary for 
our subsistence. Nero had corn in his patch, which was 
now hard enough to be fit for boiling, and my friend 
Lydia, had beans in her garden. We exchanged corn for 
beans, and had a good supply of both ; but these delica- 
cies we were obliged to reserve for supper. We took our 
breakfast in the field, from the cart, which seldom afi'or- 
ded us anything better than bread, and some raw vegeta- 
bles from the garden. Nothing of moment occiUTed 
amongst us, in this first week of my residence here. On 
Wednesday evening, called settlement-night, two men and 
a woman were whipped ; but circumstances of this kind 
were so common, that I shall in future, not mention them, 
unless something extraordinary attended them. 

I could make wooden bowls and ladles, and went to 
work with a man who was clearing some new land about 
two miles oif — on the second Sunday of my sojourn here, 
and applied the money I earned in purchasing the tools 
necessary to enable Jne to carry on my trade. I applied 



168 THE ADVENTURES OF 

all my leisure hourS; for several months after this, in 
making wooden trays, and such other wooden vessels as 
were most in demand. These I traded off, in part, to a 
store-keeper, who lived about five miles from the planta- 
tion ; and for some of my work 1 obtained money. 
Before Christmas, I had sold more than thirty dollars 
worth of my manufactures ; but the merchant with whom 
I traded, charged such high prices for his goods, that I 
was poorly compensated for my Sunday toils and nightly 
labors; nevertheless, by these means, I was able to keep 
our family supplied with molasses, and some other luxu- 
ries, and at the approach of winter, I purchased three 
coarse blankets, to which Nero added as many, and we had 
all these made up into blanket-coats for Dinah, ourselves, 
and the children. 

About ten days after my arrival, we had a great feast at 
the quarter. One night, after we had returned from the 
field, the overseer sent for me by his littb son ; and when 
I came to his house, he asked me if I understood the trade 
of a butcher — I told him I was not a butcher by trade, 
but that I had often assisted my master and others, to kill 
hogs and cattle, and that I could dress a hog or a bullock, 
as well as most people. He then told me he was goino- to 
have a beef killed in the morning at the great house, and 
I must do it — that he would not spare any of the hands to 
go with me, but he would get one of the house boys to 
help me. 

When the morning came, I went, according to orders, 
to butcher the beef, which I expected to find in some 
enclosure on the plantation; but the overseer told me I 
must take a boy, named Toney, from the house, whose 
business it was to take care of the cattle, and go to the 
woods and look for the beef. Toney and I set out some- 



CHARLES BALL. 169 

time before sunrise, and went to a cow-pen, about a mile 
from the house, where he said he had seen the young 
cattle only a day or two before. At this cow-pen, we saw 
several cows waiting to be milked, I suppose, for their 
calves were in an adjoining field, and separated from them 
only by a fence. Toney then said we should have to go 
to the long savanna, where the dry cattle generally ranged, 
and thither we set off. This long savanna, lay at the 
distance of three miles from the cow-pen, and when we 
reached it, I found it to be literally what it was called, a 
long savanna. It was a piece of low, swampy ground, 
several miles in extent, with an open space in the interior 
part of it, about a mile long, and perhaps a quarter of a 
mile in width. It was manifest that this open space was 
covered with water through the greater part of the year, 
which prevented the growth of timber in this place; 
though at this time it was dry, except a pond near one end 
which covered, perhaps an acre of ground. In this natu- 
ral meadow, every kind of wild grass, common to such 
places in the southern country, abounded. 

Here I first saw the scrub and saw grasses — the first of 
which is so hard and rough, that it is gathered to scrub 
coarse wooden furniture, or even pewter; and the last is 
provided with edges, somewhat like saw-teeth, eo hard 
and sharp that it would soon tear the skin off the legs of 
any one who should venture to walk through it with bare 
limbs. 

As we entered this Savanna, we were enveloped in 
clouds of musquitos, and swarms of gallinippers, that 
threatened to devour us. As we advanced through the 
grass, they rose up until the air was thick, and actually 
darkened with them. They rushed »pon us with the fury 
of yellow-jackets, whose hive has been broken in upon, 



170 THE ADVENTURES OF 

and covered every part of our persons. The clothes I had 
on, which were nothing but a shirt and trowsers of tow 
linen, afforded no protection, even against the musquitos, 
which were much larger than those found along the Ches- 
apeake Bay ; and nothing short of a covering of leather 
could have defended me against the galinippers. 

I was pierced by a thousand stings at a time, and verily 
believe I could not have lived beyond a few hours in this 
place. Toney ran into the pond, and rolled himself in the 
water to get rid of his persecutors; but he had not been 
long there, before he came running out, as fast as he had 
gone in, hallooing and clamoring in a manner wholly unin- 
telligible to me. He was terribly frightened; but I could 
not imagine what could be the cause of his alarm, until 
he reached the shore, when he turned round with his face 
to the water, and called out — ^^the biggest alligator in the 
whole world — did not you see him ?" I told him I had 
not seen anything but himself in the water; but he insis- 
ted that he had been chased in the pond by an alligator, 
which had followed him until he was close to the shore. 
We waited a few minutes for the alligator to rise to the 
surface, but were soon compelled^ by the musquitos, to 
quit this place. 

Toney said we need not look for the cattle here — no 
cattle could live amongst these musquitos, and I thought 
lie was right in his judgment, We then proceeded into 
the woods and thickets, and after wandering about for an 
hour or more, we found the cattle, atil after much diffi. 
ciilty, succeeded in driving a part of them back to the 
cow-pen, and enclosing them in it. I here selected the 
one that appeared to me to be the fattest, and securing it 
with ropes, we drove the animal to the place of slaughter. 

This beef wns intended as a feast for the slaves, at the 



CHARLES BALL. 171 

laying by of the corn and cotton ; and when I had it hung 
up, and had taken the hide oflf, my young master, whom 
I had seen on the day of my arrival, came out to me and 
ordered me to cut off the head^ neck, legs and tail, and lay 
them together with the empty stomach and the harslet, in 
a basket. This basket was sent home, to the kitchen of 
the great house, by a woman and a boy^ who attended for 
that purpose. I think there was at least one hundred and 
twenty or thirty pounds of this offal. The residue of the 
carcase I cut into four quarters, and we carried it to the 
cellar of the great house. Here one of the hind quarters 
was salted in a tub for the use of the. family, and the 
other was sent as a present to a planter, who lived about 
four miles distant. The two fore-quarters were cut into 
very small pieces, and salted by themselves. These I was 
told,'would be cooked for our dinner on the next day, 
(Sunday,) when there was to be a general rejoicing 
amongst all the slaves of the plantation. 

After the beef was salted down, 1 received some bread 
and milk for my breakfast, and went to join the hands in 
the corn-field, where they were now harrowing and hoeing 
the crop for the last time. The overseer had promised us 
that we should have holiday, after the completion of this 
work, and by great exertion, we finished it about five 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

On our return to the quarter, the overseer, at roll call 
— which he performed this day before night — told us that 
every family must send a bowl to the great house, to get 
our dinners of meat. This intelligence diffused as much 
joy amongst us, as if each one had drawn a prize in a lot- 
tery. At the assurance of a meat dinner, the old people 
smiled and showed their teeth, and returned thanks to 
master overseer; but many of the younger ones shouted, 



172 THE ADVENTURES OP 

clapped their hands, leaped, and ran about with delight. 

Each family or mess, now sent its deputy, with a large 
wooden bowl in his hand, to receive the dinner at the 
great kitchen. I went on the part of our family, and 
found that the meat dinner of this day, was made up of 
the basket of tripe, and other oiFal, that I had prepared in 
the morning. The whole had been boiled in four great 
iron kettles, until the flesh had disappeared from the bones, 
which were broken in small pieces — a flitch of bacon, some 
green corn, squashes, tomatos and onions, had been added, 
together with other condiments, and the whole converted 
into about a hundred gallons of soup, of which I received 
in my bowl, for the use of our family, more than two gal- 
lons. We had plenty of bread, and a supply of black- 
eyed peas, gathered from our garden, some of which Dinah 
had boiled in our kettle, whilst I was gone for the soup, 
of which there was as much as we could consume, and I 
believe that every one in the quarter had enough. 

I doubt if there was in the world a happier assemblage 
than ours, on this Saturday evening. "VVe had finished 
one of the grand divisions of the labors of a cotton planta- 
tion, and were supplied with a dinner, which to the most 
of my fellow slaves, appeared to be a great luxury, and 
most liberal donation on the part of oiir master, whom 
they regarded with sentiments of gratitude, for this man- 
ifestation of his bounty. 

In addition to present gratification, they looked forward 
to the enjoyments of the next day, when they were to 
spend a whole Sunday in rest and banqueting; for it was 
known -that the two fore-quarters of the bullock, were to 
be dressed for Sunday's dinner ; and I had told them that 
each of these quarters weighed at least one hundred 
pounds. 



CHARLES BALL. 173 

Our quarter knew but little quiet this night ; singing, 
playing on the banjo, and dancing, occupied nearly the 
whole community, until the break of day. Those who 
were too old to take any part in our active pleasures, beat 
time with their hands, or recited stories of former times. 
Most of these stories referred to affairs that had been 
transacted in Africa, and were sufficiently fraught with 
demons, miracles, and murders, to fix the attention of 
many hearers. 

To add to our happiness, the early peaches were now 
ripe, and the overseer permitted us to seiid on Sunday 
morning, to the orchard, and gather at least ten bushels 
of very fine fruit. 

In South Carolina they have very good summer apples, 
but they fall from the trees, and rot immediately after 
they are ripe ; indeed, very often they speck-rot on the 
trees before they become ripe. This '^speck-rot,'^ as it is 
termed, appears to be a kind of epidemic disease amongst 
apples ; for in sonie seasons, whole orchards are subject to 
it, and the fruit is totally worthless; whilst in other years 
the fruit in the same orchard continues sound and good, 
until it is ripe. The climate of Carolina, is, however, not 
favorable to the apple, and this fruit of so much value in 
the North, is in the cotton region, only of a few weeks 
continuance — winter apples being unknown, ilvery cli- 
mate is congenial to the growth of some kind of fruit 
tree; and in Carolina and Georgia, the peach arrives at its 
utmost perfection ; the fig also ripens well, and is a deli- 
cious fruit. 

None of our people went out to work for wages to-day. 
Some few devoted a part of the morning to such work as 
they deemed necessary, in or about their patches, and 
some went to the woods, or the swamps, to collect sticki 



174 THE ADVENTURES OP 

for brooms, and splits, or to gather flags for mats ; but 
far the greater number remained at the quarter, occupied 
in some small work, or quietly awaiting the hour of dinner 
which we had been informed, by one of the house servants, 
would be at one o'clock. Every family made ready some 
preparation of vegetables from their own garden, to 
enlarge the quantity, if not to heighten the flavor of the 
dinner of this day. 

One o'clock at length arrived, but not before it had 
been hnig desired j and we proceeded with our bowls a 
second time, to the great kitchen. I acted as I had done 
yesterday, the part of commissary for our family; but 
when wo were already at the place where we were to 
receive our soup and meat into our bowls, (for it was under- 
stood that we were, with the soup, to have an allowance of 
both beef and bacon, to-da}^,) we were told that puddings 
had been boiled for us, and that we must bring aishes to 
receive them in. This occasioned some delay, until we 
obtained vessels from the quarter. In addition to at least 
two gallons of soup, about a pound of beef, and a small 
piece of bacon. I obtained nearly two pounds of pudding, 
made of corn meal, mixed with lard, and boiled in large 
bags. This pudding, with the molasses that we had at 
home, formed a very palatable second course to our bread, 
soup and vegetables. 

On Sunday afternoon, we had a meeting, at which 
many of our party attended. A man named Jacob, who 
had come from Virginia, sang and prayed; but a great 
many of the people went out about the plantation in 
search of fruits; for there were many peach and some fig 
trees, standing along the fences on various parts of the 
estate. With us, this was a day of uninterrupted happi- 
ness. 



CHARLES BALL. 175 

A man cannot well be miserable, when he sees every 
one about him immersed in pleasure; and though our fare 
of to-day, was not of a quality to yield me much gratifi- 
cation, yet such was the impulse given to liiy feelings, by 
the universal hilarity and contentment, which prevailed 
amongst my fellows, that I forgot for the time, all the 
subjects of grief that were stored in my memory, all the 
acts of wrong that had been perpetrated against me, and 
entered with the most sincere and earnest sentiments in 
the participation of the felicity of our community. 



CHAPTER XII. 

At the time of which I now speak, the rice was ripe, 
and ready to be gathered. On Monday morning, after our 
feast, the overseer took the whole of us to the rice field, 
to enter upon the harvest of this crop. The field lay in a 
piece of low ground, near the river, and in such a position 
that it could be flooded by the water of the stream in wet 
seasons. The rice is planted in drills, or rows, and grows 
more like oats than any of the other grain known in the 
North. 

The water is sometimes let into the rice fields, and 
drawn off again, several times, according to the state of 
the weather. Watering and weeding the rice is consid- 
ered one of the most unhealthy occupations on a southern 
plantation, as the people are obliged to live for several 
weeks in the mud and water, subject to all the unwhole- 
some vapors that arise from stagnant pools, under the raya 
of a summer sun, as well as the chilly autumnal dews of 



176 THE ADVENTURES OF 

niirht- At the time vre came to cut this rice, the field was - 
quite dry; and after we had reaped and bound it, we 
hauled it upon wagons, to a piece of hard ground, where 
we made a threshing floor, and threshed it. In some 
places, they tread out the rice, with mules or horses, as 
they tread wheat in Maryland; but this renders the grain 
dusty, and is injurious to its sale. 

After getting in the rice, we were occupied for some 
time in clearing and ditching swampy land, preparatory to 
a more extended culture of rice the next year ; and about 
the first of August, twenty or thirty of the people, prin- 
cipally women and children, were employed for two weeks 
in making cider, of apples which grew in an orchard of 
nearly two hundred trees, that stood on a part of the 
estate. After the cider was made, a barrel of it was one 
day brought to the field, and distribufed amongst us; but 
this gratuity was not repeated. The cider that was made 
by the people, was converted into brandy, at a still in the 
corner of the orchard. 

I often obtained cider to drink at the still, which was 
sheltered from the weather by a shed of boards and slabs. 
We were not permitted to go into thq. orchard at pleasure; 
but as long as tho apples continued, we were allowed the 
privilege of sending five or six persons every evening, for 
the purpose of bringing apples to the quarter, for our 
common use ; and by taking large baskets and filling them 
well, we generally contrived to get as many as we could 
consume. 

When the peaches ripened, they were guarded with 
more rigor — peach brandy being an article which is no 
where more highly prized than in South Carolina. There 
were on the plantation, more than a thousand peach trees, 
growing on poor sandy fields, which were no longer worth 



CHARLES BALL. 17T 

die expeuse of cultivation. The best peaches grow upon 
the poorest sand-hills. 

We were allowed to take three bushels of peaches every 
day, for the use of the quarter ; but we could, and did eat, 
at least three times that quantity, for we stole at night 
that which was not given us by day. I confess that I 
took part in these thefts, and I do not feel that I commit- 
ted any wrong, against cither God or man, by my parti- 
cipation in the common danger that we run, for we well 
knew the consequences that would have followed detection. 

After the feast at laying by of the corn and cotton, we 
had no meat for several weeks ; and it is my opinion that 
cur master lost money, by the economy he practised at 
this season of the year. 

In the month of August, we had to save, the fodder. 
This fodder-saving is the most toilsome, and next to work- 
ing in the rice swamps, the most unhealthy job, that has 
to be performed on a cotton plantation, in the w^hole year. 
The manner of doing it is to cut the tops from the corn, 
as is done in Pennsylvania ; but in addition to this, the 
blades below the ear, are always pulled off by the hand. 
Great pains is taken with these corn-blades. They con- 
stitute the chosen food of race, and all other horses, that 
are intended to be kept with extraordinary care, and in 
superior condition. For the purpose of procuring the 
best blades, they are frequently stripped from the stock, 
sometime before the corn is ripe enough in the ear, to 
permit the top of the stalk to be cut off, without prejudice 
to the grain. After the blades are stripped from the 
stem, they are stuck between the hills of corn until they 
are cured, ready for the stack. They are then cut and 
bound in sheaves, with small bands of the blades them- 
selves. This binding, and the subsequent hauling from 
P 



178 THE ADVENTURES OF 

the field,, must be done either early in the morning, 
before the dew is dried up; or in the night whilst the dew 
is falling. 

This work exposes the people who do it, to the fogs a,ni 
damps of the climate, at the most unhealthy season of 
the year. Agues, fevers, and all the diseases which 
follow in their train, have their dates at the time of 
fodder-saving. It is the only work, appertaining to a 
cotton estate, which must of necessity be done in the 
night, or in the fogs of the morning ; and the people at 
this season of the year, and whilst engaged in this very 
fatiguing work, would certainly be better able to go 
through with it, if they were regularly supplied with 
proper portions of sound and wholesome salted provisions. 
If every master would, through the months of August 
and September, supply his people with only a quarter of a 
pound of good bacon flitch to each person, daily, I have 
no doubt but that he would save money by it ; to say 
nothing of the great comfort it would yield to the slaves 
at this period, when the human frame is so subject to 
debility and feebleness. 

Early in August, disease made its appearance amongst 
us. Several were attacked by the ague, with its accompa- 
nying fever; ^ut in South Carolina, the "ague,'' as it is 
called, is scarcely regarded as a disease, and if a slave has 
no ailment that is deemed more dangerous, he is never 
withdrawn from the roll of the field hands. I have seen 
many of our poor people compelled to pick cotton, when 
their frames were sTiaken so violently by the ague, that 
they were unable to get hold of the cotton in the burs, 
witliout difiiculty. In this, masters commit a great error. 
Many fine slaves are lost by this disease, which superindu- 
ces the dropsy, and sometimes the consumption, which 



CHAHLES BALL. 179 

could have been prevented by arresting the agite at itn 
onset. When any of our people were taken so ill that 
they were not able to go to the field, they were removed 
to the great house, and placed in the "sick room,'' as it 
was termed. This sick room was a large airy apartment, 
in the second story of a building which stood in the gar- 
den. 

The lower part of this building was divided into two 
apartments, in one of which was kept the milk, butter 
and other things connected with the dairy. In the other, 
the salt provisions of the family, including fish, bacon and 
othe.r articles, were secured. This apartment also consti- 
tuted the smoke house ; but as the ceiling was lathed, and 
plastered with a thick coat of lime and sand, no smoke 
could penetrate the ^^sick room," which was at all seasons 
of the year, a very comfortable place td sleep m. 

Though I was never sick myself, whilst on this planta- 
tion, I was several times in this ^'sick room," and always 
observed, when there, that the sick slaves -were well atten- 
ded to. There was a hanging partition, which could "he 
let down at pleasure, and which was let down when it was 
necessary, to divide the rooms into two apartments, which 
always -happened when there were several slaves of differ- 
ent sexes, sick at the same time. 

The beds upon which the sick lay, were of straw, but 
clean and wholesome, and the patients when once in this 
room, were provided with every thing necessary for per- 
sons in their situation. A physician attended them daily, 
and proper food, and even wines, were not wanting. 

The contrast between the cotton and rice fields, and this 
little hospital, was very great ; and it appeared to me at 
the time, that if a part of the tenderness and benevolence 
displayed liere, had been bestowed upon the people whilst 



180 THE ADVENTURES OF 

in good health, very many of the inmates of thi.s infirmary 
would never have been here. 

I have often seen the same misapplication of the prin- 
ciples of philanthroj)y in Pennsylvania — the subjects only 
being varied from slaves to horses. The finest and most 
valuable horses, are often overworked, or driven beyond 
their capacity of endurance, (it cannot be said that horses 
are not generally well fed in Pennsylvania,) without 
mercy or consideration, on the part of their owners; or 
more frequently of unfeeling hirelings, who have no inter- 
est in the life of the poor animal ; and when his constitu- 
tion is broken, and his health gone, great care, and even 
expense, are bestowed upon him, for the purpose of resto- 
ring him to his former strength; the one half of which 
care or expense, would have preserved him in beauty and 
vigor, had they been bestowed upon him before he had 
suffered the irreparable injuries, attendant upon Jiis cruel 
treatment. 

In Pennsylvania, the horse is regarded, and justly re- 
garded, only on account of the labor he is able to perform. 
Being the subject of property, his owner considers, not 
Iiow he shall add most to the comforts and enjoyments of 
his horse, but by what means he shall be able to procure 
the greatest amoimt of labor from him, with the least ex- 
pense to himself. In devising the means of saving ex- 
pense, the life of the horse, and the surest and cheapest 
method of its preservation, are taken into consideration. 

Precisely in this way, do the cotton planters reason and 
act, in relation to their slaves. Regarding the negroes 
merely as objects of property, like prudent calculators, 
they study how to render this property of the greatest 
value, and to obtain tlio greatest yearly income, from the 
capital invested in the slaves, and the laiids they cultivate 



CHARLES BALL. 181 

Experience has proved to me, that a man who eats no 
animal food, may yet be healthy, and able to perform the 
work usually done on a cotton plantation. Corn bread, 
sweet potatoes, some garden vegetables, with a little 
molasses and salt, assisted by the other accidental supplies 
that a thrifty slave is able to procure on a plantation, are 
capable of sustaining life and health ; and a slave who 
lives on such^food, and never tastes fiesh, stands at least 
an equal chance for long life, with his master or mistress, 
^^who are clad in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptu- 
ously every daj." More people are killed by eating and 
di-inking too much, than die of the efi"ects of starvation 
in the South ; but the diseases of the white man, do not 
diminish the sufferings of the black one. A man who 
lives upon vegetable diet, may be healthy and active ; but 
I know he is not so strong and vigorous, as if he enjoyed 
a portion of animal food. 

The labor usually performed by slaves on a cotton plan- 
tation, does not require great bodily strength, but rather 
superior agility and wakefulness. The hoes in use, are 
not heavy, and the art of picking cotton, depends not 
upon superior strength, but upon the power of- giving 
quick and accelerated motion to the fingers, arms and legs. 
The fences have to be made and repaired, and ditches dug 
— wood must also be cut, for many purposes, and all these 
operations call for strength; but they consume only a very 
small portion of the whole year — more than three fourths 
of which is spent in the cotton corn, rice and indigo 
fields, where the strength of a boy or a woman, is sufficient 
to perform any kind of labor, necessary in the culture of 
the plants; but men are able to do more, even of this 
work, than cither boys or women. 

We scarcely had time to complete the securing of the 



182 THE ADVENTURES OF 

fuJJcr, and wuikiug up tlie apples and peaciie.'S; when the 
cotton was ready for picking. This business of picking 
cotton constitutes about half the labor of the year, on a 
large plantation. In Carolina it is generally commenced 
about the first of September; though, in some years, 
much cotton is picked in August. The manner of doing 
the work is this : The cotton being planted in hills, in 
strait rows, from four to five feet apart, each hand or 
picker, provided with a bag made of cotton bagging, 
holding a bushel or more, hung round the neck with cords, 
proceeds from one end of the field to the other, between 
two of these rows, picking all the cotton from the open 
burrs, on the right and left, as he goes. It is the busi" 
ness of the picker to take all the cotton from each of the 
rows, so far as the lines of the rows or hills. In this 
way he picks half the cotton from each of the rows, and 
the pickers who come on his right and left, take the 
remainder from the opposite sides of the rows. 

The cotton is gathered into the bag, and when it be- 
comes burdensome by its weight it is deposited in some 
convenient place, until night, when it is taken home, 
either in a large bag or basket, and weighed under the 
superintendence of the overseer. A day's work is not 
estimated by the number of hills or rows that are picked 
in a day, but by the number of pounds of cotton in the 
Kccd, that the picker brings into the cotton house at night. 

In a good field of cotton, fully ripe, a day's work is 
sixty pounds; but where the cotton is of inferior quality, 
or the burrs are not in full blow, fifty pounds is the day's 
work; and where the cotton is poor, or in bad order, 
forty, or even thirty pounds, is as much as one hand can 
get in a day. 

The picking of cotton continue'^ from August until De- 



CHARLES BALL. 183 

cember, or January; and in some fields they pick from 
the okl plants until they are ploughed up, in February or 
March, to make room for the planting of the seeds of 
another crop. 

On all the estates, the standard of a day's work is fixed 
by the overseer, according to the quality of the cotton; 
and ^if a hand gathers more than his standard he is paid 
for it; but if, on the other hand, when his or her cotton 
is weighed at the cotton house, in the evening, it is found 
that the standard quantity has not been picked, the delin- 
quent picker is sure to receive a whipping. 

On some estates, settlements are made every evening, 
and the whipping follows immediately; on others the 
whipping does not occur until the next day; whilst on a 
few plantations the accounts are closed twice or three 
times a week. 

I have stated heretofore, that our overseer whipped 
twice a week, for the purpose of saving time; but if this 
method saved time to the overseer and the hands, it also 
saved the latter of a great many stripes; for very often, 
when one of us had displeased the ovevseer, he would 
tell us that on Wednesday or Saturday night, as the case 
might be, we should be remembered; yet the thing was 
either forgotten, or the passion of the overseer subdued, 
before the time of retribution arrived, and the delinquent 
escaped altogether from the punishment, which would 
certainly have fallen upon him, if it had been the custom 
of the overseer to chastise for every offence, at the mo- 
ment, or even on the day of its perpetration. A short 
day's work was always punished. 

The cotton does not all ripen at the same time, on the 
same plant, which is picked and repicked from six to ten 
times. The burrs ripen ail^^ burst open on the lower 



184 THE ADVENTURES 01? 

branches of the plant, whilst those at the top are yet in 
flower, or perhaps only in leaf or bud. The plant grows 
on taller and larger, until it is arrested by the frost, or 
cool weather in autumn, continually throwing out new 
branches, new stems, new blossoms, and new burrs, ceas- 
ing only with the first frost, at which time there are 
always some green burrs at the top of the plant, that never 
arrive at maturity. This state of things is, however, 
often prevented, by topping the plant in August or Sep- 
tember, which prevents it from throwing out new branches 
and blossoms, and forwards the growth and ripening of 
those already formed. 

The first picking takes the cotton from the burrs of the 
lowest branches; the second from those a little higher; 
and so on, until those of the latest growth, at the top of 
the plant, are reached. 

When the season has been bad, or from any other cause, 
the crop is light, the picking is sometimes complete and 
the field clear of the cotton, before the fii'st of January; 
but when the crop is heavy, or the people have been sickly 
in the fall, the picking is frequently protracted until Feb- 
ruary, or even the first of March. The winter does not 
injure the cotton standing in the field, though the wind 
blows some of it out of the expanded burrs, which is thus 
scattered over the field and lost. 

An acre of prime land will yield two thousand pounds 
of cotton in the seed seed. I have heard of three thousand 
pounds having been picked from an acre, but have not seen 
it. Four pounds of cotton in the seed yield one pound, 
when cleaned and prepared for market. 

It is estimated by the planters, or rather by the over- 
seers, that a good hand can cultivate and pick five acres 
of cotton^ and raise as muc4' corn as will make his bread, 



CHARLES BALL. 185 

and feed a mule or a horse. I know this to be a very 
liard task for a single hand, if the land is good and the 
crops at all luxuriant. One man may, with great dili- 
gence and continued good health, be able to get through 
with the cotton, and two or three, or even five acres of 
corn, up to the time when the cotton is ready to be picked^ 
but from this period he will find the labor more than he 
can perform, if the cotton is to be picked clean from the 
plants. Five acres of good cotton will yield ten thousand 
pounds of rough, or seed cotton. If he can pick sixty 
pounds a day, and works twenty-five days in a month, the 
picking of ten thousand pounds will occupy him more 
than six months. 

From my own observations on the plantations of South 
Carolina and Georgia, I am of opinion, that the planters 
in those states do not get more than six or seven thousand 
pounds of cotton in the seed, for each hand employed; 
and I presume, that fifteen hundred pounds of clean cotton 
is the full average of the product of the labor of each hand. 

I now entered upon a new scene of life. My true value 
had not yet been ascertained by my present owner; and 
whether I was to hold the rank of a first, or second rate 
hand, could only be determined by an experience of my 
ability to pick cotton ; nor was this important trait in my 
character to be fully understood by a trial of one, or only 
a few days. It requires some time to enable a stranger, 
or new hand, to acquire the sleight of picking cotton. 

I had ascertained, that at the hoe, the spade, the axe, 
the sickle, or the flail, I was a full match for the best 
hands on the plantation; but soon discovered, when we 
came to the picking of cotton, that I was not equal to a 
boy of twelve or fifteen years of age. I worked hard the 
first day, and made every cfl'ort to sustain the character 



186 THE ADVENTURES OF 

that I had acquired amongst my companions; but when 
ovcning came, and our cotton was weigliei, I Imd only 
thirty -eight pounds, and was vexed to see that two young 
men, about my own age, had, one fifty-eight, and the 
other fifty-nine pounds. This was our first day's work; 
and the overseer had not yet settled the amount of a day's 
picking. It wag necessary for him to ascertain, by the 
experience of a few days, how much the best hands could 
pick in a day, before he established the standard of the 
season. I hung down my head, and felt very much 
ashamed of myself, when I found that my cotton was so 
far behind that of many, even of the women, who had 
heretofore regarded me as the strongest and most powerful 
man of the whole ffanir. 

I had exerted myself to-day, to the utmost of my 
power; and as 'the picking of cotton seemed to be so very 
simple a business, I felt apprehensive that I should never 
be able to improve myself, so far as even to become a 
second rate hand. In this posture of affiiirs, I looked 
forward to something still more painful than the loss of 
character which I must sustain, both with my fellows 
and my master; for I knew that the lash of the overseer 
would soon become familiar with my back, if I did not 
perform as much work as any of the other young men. 

I expected, indeed, that it would go hard with me even 
now, and stood by with feelings of despondence and terror, 
whilst the other people were getting their cotton weighed. 
When it was all weighed, the overseer came to me where 
I stood, and told me to show him my hfinds. When I 
had done this, and he had looked at them, he observed — 
<'You have a pair of good hands — ^you will make a good 
picker." This faint praise of the overseer revived my 
spirits greatly, and I went home with a lighter heart than 



CHARLES BALL. 187 

I had expected to posses^ before the termination of the 
cotton picking:^ 

When I came to get my cotton weighed, on the even- 
ing of the second day, I was rejoiced to find that I had 
forty-six pounds, although I had not worked harder than 
I did the first day. On the third evening I had fifty-two 
pounds; and before the end of the week, there were only 
three hands in the field — two men and a young woman — 
who could pick more cotton in a day than I could. 

On the Monday morning of the second week, when we 
went to the field, the overseer told us that he fixed the 
day's work at fifty pounds; and that all those who picked 
more than that, would be paid a cent a pound for the over- 
plus. Twenty -five pounds was assigned as the' daily task 
of the old people, as well as a number of boys and girls, 
whilst some of the women, who had children, were re- 
quired to pick forty pounds, and several of the children 
had ten pounds each as their task. 

Picking cotton may almost be reckoned among the arts. 
A man who has arrived at the age of twenty-five, before 
he sees a cotton field, will never, in the language of the 
overseer, become a crack picker. 

By great industry and vigilance, I was able, at the end 
of the month, to retui'n every evening a few pounds over 
the daily rate, for which I received my pay; but the busi- 
ness of picking cotton was an irksome and fatiguing labor 
to me, and one to which I never could become thoroughly 
reconciled; for the reason, 1 believe, that in every other 
kind of work in which I was engaged in the south, I was 
able to acquire the character of a first rate hand; whilst 
in picking cotton, I was hardly regarded as ^ prime hand. 



188 THE ADVENTUKES OF 



CHAPTER XIII. 

In a community of near tlirec hundred persons, gov- 
erned by laws as severe and unbending as those which reg- 
ulated our actions, it is not to be expected that universal 
content can prevail, or that crimes will not be imagined, 
and even sometimes prepetrated. Ignorant men estimate 
those things, which fortune has placed beyond their reach, 
not by their real value, but by the strength of their own 
desires, and passions. Objects in themselves indifferent, 
which they are forbidden to touch, or even approach, excite 
in the minds of the unreflecting, ungovernable impulses. 
The] slave, who is taught from infancy, to regard his con- 
dition as unchangeable, and his fate as fixed, by the laws 
of nature, fancies that he sees his master, in possession of 
that happiness which he knows has been denied to himself. 
The lower men are sunk, in the scale of civilization, the 
more violent become their animal passions. The native 
Africans are revengeful, and unforgiving in their tempers, 
easily provoked, and cruel in their designs. They gener- 
ally place little, or even no value upon the fine houses and 
superb furniture of their masters; and discover no beauty in 
the fair complexions, and delicate form of their mistresses. 
They feel indignant, at the servitude that is imposed upon 
them, and only want power to inflict the most cruel retri- 
bution, upon their oppressors; but they desire only the 
means of subsistence, and temporary gratification in this 
country, during their abode here. 

They arc universally of opinion, and this opinion is 
founded in their religion, that after death they shall re- 
turn to their own country, and rejoin their former com- 



CHARLES BALL. 189 

pauions and friend.s, in some liappy region, in wliicli tliey 
will be provided with plenty of food, and beautiful women, 
from the lovely daughters of their native land. 

The case is different with the American negro, who 
knows nothing of Africa^ her religion, or customs, and who 
has borrowed all his ideas, of present and future happiness, 
from the opinions and intercourse of white people, and of 
christians. He is, perhaps, not so impatient of slavery, 
excessive hibor, as the native of Congo; but his mind is 
bent upon other pursuits, and his discontent works out for 
itself, other schemes than those which agitate the brain of 
the imported negro. His heart pants for no heaven be- 
yond the waves of the ocean; and he dreams of no delights 
in the arms of sable beauties, in groves of immortality, 
on the banks of the Niger, or the Gambia; nor does he 
often solace himself, with the reflection, that the day will 
arrive when all men will receive the awards of immu- 
table justice, and live together in eternal bliss, without 
any other distinctions than those of superior virtue, and 
exalted mercy. Circumstance? oppose great obstacles in 
the way of these opinions. 

The slaves who are natives of the country, (I now speak 
of the mass of those on the cotton plantations, as I knew 
them,) like all other people, who suffer wrong in this 
world, exceedingly prone to console themselves with the 
delights of a future state, when the evil that has been en- 
dured in this life, will not only be abolished, and all in- 
juries be compensated by proper rewards, bestowed upon 
the sufferers; but as they have learned that wickedness is 
to be punished, as well as goodness compensated; they do 
not stop at the point of their own enjoyments, and pleas, 
urcs, but believe that those who have tormented them here^ 
will niorst r.urely be tormented in there turn hereafter. 

Q 



190 THE ADVENTURES OF 

The gross and carnal minds of these slaves, are not capable 
of arriving at the sublime doctrines taught by the white 
preachers; in which they are encouraged to look forward 
to the day when all distinctions of color, and of condition, 
will be abolished, and they shall sit down in the same para- 
disc, with their masters, and mistresses, and even with the 
overseer. They are ready enough to receive the faith 
which conducts them to heaven, and eternal rest, on ac- 
count of their present sufferings; but they by no means so 
willingly admit, the master and mistress to an equal parti- 
cipation in their enjoyments: this would only be partial 
justice and half way retribution. According to their no- 
tions, the master and mistress, arc to be, in future, the 
companion of wicked slaves, whilst an agreeable recreation, 
of the celestial inhabitants of the negro's heaven, will be 
a return to the overseer of the countless lashes that he has 
lent out, so liberally here. 

It is impossible to reconcile the mind of the native 
slave, to the idea of living in a state of perfect equality, 
and boundless affection, with the white people. Heaven 
will be no heaven to him, if he is not to be avenged of his 
enemies. I know from experience, that these are the 
fundamental rules t)f his religious creed; because I learned 
them, in the religious meetings of the slaves themselves. 
A favourite, and kind master or mistress, may now and 
then be admited into heaven, but this rather is a matter 
of favor, to the intercession of some slave, than as mat- 
ter of strict justice to the whites, who will, by no means, 
be of an equal rank with those who shall be raised from 
the depths of misery, in this world. 

The idea of a revolution, in tlie conditions of the whites 
and the blacks, is the corner stone of the religion of the 
latter; and indeed, it seems to mc, at least, to be quite 



CHARLES BALL. 191 

iiatural, if not in strict accordance witli the precepts of the 
bible; for in that book, I j&nd it every where laid down, 
that those who have possessed an inordinate portion of 
the good things of this world, and have lived in ease and 
luxury, at the expense of their fellow men, will surely have 
to render an account of their stewardship, and be punished, 
for having withheld from others the participation of those 
blessings, which they themselves enjoyed. 

There is no subject which presents to the mind of the 
male slave, a greater contrast between his own condition, 
and that of his master, than the relative station, and ap- 
pearance of his wife, and his mistress. The one poorly 
clad, poorly fed, and exposed to all the hardships of the 
cotton field; the other dressed in clothes of gay, and vari- 
ous colours, ornamented with jewelry, and carefully pro- 
tected from the rays of the sun, and the blasts of the wind. 
The slave rides the beautiful horse of his master — it may 
be only to the watering place; but yet he rides him, and his 
owner can do no more. The costly carpet of the parlor, 
is walked upon by the slave, as well as by his master; and 
the silver cups, used by the latter at dinner, pass through 
the hands of the former, in the process of being cleaned; 
but the mistress of the mansion, and her young smiling 
daughters, in their habits of silk, or frocks of pure and 
spotless white, crowned with tresses of jet or auburn, are 
sacred and forbidden treasures. Upon these the [slave 
may look, but can never dare to lay his hand, and it is 
upon this point that he discovers the most impassable of 
all the barriers, that separate his own condition from that 
of his owner. 

In all the consultations of the southern alaves, at which 
I have been present, and in which a possible change in the 
actual position of things, has been discussed, the white 



l'.>2 THE ADVENTURES OF 

hulics have found a proiiiiucnt^ nay^ a leading part, of 
their deliberation. 

As I have before observed, the Africans have fealings 
pecular to themselves; but with an American slave, the 
possession of the spacious house, splendid furniture, and 
fine horses of his master, are but the secondary objects of 
his desires. To fill the measure of his hapiness, and crown 
his higlrest ambition, his young and beautiful mistress, 
must adorn his triumph, and enliven his hopes. 

I have been drawn into the above reflections, by the 
recollection of an event, of a most melancholy character, 
which took place when I had been on this plantation, about 
three months. Amongst the house servants of my master, 
was a young man, named Hardy, of a dark yellow com- 
plexion — a quadroon, or mulatto — one fourth of whose 
blood was transmitted from white parentage. 

Hardy was employed, in various kinds of work about the 
house, and was frequently sent of errands — sometimes on 
horseback. I had become acquainted with the boy who 
had often come to see me at the quarter, and had some- 
times staid all night with me, and often told me of the 
ladies and gentlemen, who visited at the great liouse. 

Amongst others, he frequently spoke of a young lady, 
who resided six or seven miles from the plantation, and 
often came to visit the daughters of the family, in company 
with her brother, a lad about twelve or fourteen years of 
age. He described the great beauty of this girl, whose 
mother was a widow, living on a small estate of her own. 
This lady did not keep a carriage; but her son and daugh- 
ter, when they went abroad, travelled on horseback. 

One Sunday, these two young people, came to visit at 
tlio house of my nmster, and remained until after tea in 
tlic evening. As I did not go out to work that day I went 



CHARLES BALL. 193 

over to the great house, and from the house to a place in 
tlie woods, about a mile distant, where I had set snares 
for rabbits. This place Was near the road, and I saw the 
young lady and her brother, on their way home. It was 
after sun-down, when they passed me; but as the evening 
was clear, and pleasant, I supposed they would get home 
soon after dark, and that no accident would befal them. 

No more was thought of the matter, this evening, and I 
heard nothing further of the young people, until the next 
day, about noon, when a black boy came into the field 
where we were picking cotton, and went to the overseer, 
with a piece of paper. In a short time, the overseer called 
me to come with him, and leaving the field with the hands 
under the orders of Simon, the first captain, we proceeded 
to the great house. 

As soon as we arrived at the mansion, my master, who 
had not spoken to me since the day we came from Colum- 
bia, appeared at the front door, and ordered me to come in, 
and follow him. He led me through a part of the house 
and passed into the back yard, where I saw the young gen- 
tleman, his son, another gentleman whom I did not know, 
the family doctor and the overseer, all standing together, 
and in earnest conversation. At my appearance, the over- 
seer opened a celler door, and ordered me to go in. I had 
no suspicion of evil, and obeyed the order immediately; as 
indeed I must have obeyed it, whatever might have been 
my suspicions. 

The overseer, and the gentlemen, all followed ; and as 
soon as the cellar door was closed after us, by some ouc 
whom I could not see, I was ordered to pull off my clothes, 
and lie down on my back. I was then bound by the 
hands and feet, with strong cords, and extended at full 
length between two of the beams, that supported the tim- 
bers of the buildino-. 



194 THE ADVENTURES OF 

The stranger, who I now observed was much agitated, 
apokc to the doctor, who then opened a small case of 
surgeon's instruments, which he took from his pocket, 
and told me that he was going to skin me, for what I had 
done last night ; ^^but,'' said the doctor, ^'before you are 
skinned, you had better confess your crime/' ^'What 
crime, master, shall I confess? I have committed no 
crime — what has been done, that you are going to murder 
me?" was my reply. My master then asked me, why I 
had followed the young lady, and her brother, who went 
from the house the evening before, and murdered her? 
Astonished, and terrified at the charge of being a mur- 
derer, I knew not what to say ; and only continued the 
protestations of my innocence, and my entreaties not to 
be put to death. My young master was greatly enraged 
against me, and loaded me with maledictions, and impre- 
cations ; and his father appeared to be as well satisfied as 
he was, of my guilt, but was more calm, and less vocifer- 
ous in his language. 

The doctor during this time, was assorting his instru- 
ments and looking at me — then stooping down, and feeling 
my pulse, he said it would not do to skin a man, so full 
of blood as 1 was. I should bleed so much, that he could 
not see to do his work ; and he should probably cut some 
large vein, or artery, by which I should bleed to death in 
a few minutes ; it was necessary to bleed me in the arms, 
fur some time, so as to reduce the quantity of blood that 
was in mo, before taking my skin oif. He then bound a 
string round my right arm, and opened a vein near the 
middle of the arm, from which the blood ran in a largo 
and smooth stream. I already began to feel faint with 
the loss of blood, when the cellar door was thrown open, 
and several persons came down, with two liiihted candles. 



CHARLES BALL. 195 

T looked at these people attentively, as tliey came near^ 
aud stood around me, and expressed their satisfaction at 
the just and dreadful punishment that I was about to 
undergo. Their faces were all new, and unknown to me, 
except that of a lad, whom I recognized as the same, who 
had ridden by me the preceding evening, in company with 
his sister. 

My old master spoke to this boy, by name, and told 
him to come and see the murderer of his sister, receive 
his due. The boy was a pretty youth, and wore his hair 
long, on the top of his head, in the fashion of that day. 
As he came round near my head, the light of a candle, 
which the doctor held in his hand, shone full in my face, 
and seeing that the eyes of the boy met mine, I determi- 
ned to make one more eifort to save my life, and said to 
him, in as calm a tone as I could, '^young master, did I 
murder young mistress, your sister ?'' The youth imme- 
diately looked at my master, and said, ^^this is not the 
man. This man has short wool, and he had long wool, 
like your Hardy.'' 

My life was saved. I was snatched from the most 
horrible of tortures; and from a slow and painful death. 
I was unbound, the bleeding of my arm stopped, and I 
was suffered to ptit on my clothes, aud go up into the 
back yard of the house, where I was required to tell what 
I knew of the young lady and her brother, on the previ- 
ous day. I stated that I had seen them in the court yard 
of the house, at the time I was in the kitchen; that I had 
then gone to the woods, to set my snares, and had seen 
them pass along the road, near me, and that this was all 
the knowledge I had of them. The boy was then required 
to examine me particularly, and ascertain whether I was, 
or was not, the man who had murdered his sister. He 



196 THE ADVENTURES OF 

said lie liat] not seen mo at the place vvliere J stated 1 was, 
and that he was confident 1 was not the perBon, who had 
attacked him and his sister. That my hair^ or wool as 
he called it^ was short ; but that of the man who commit- 
ted the crime, was long, like Hardy, and that he was 
about the size of Hardy — not so large as I was, but black 
like me, and not yellow like Hardy. Some one now asked 
where Hardy was, and he was called for, but could not be 
found in the kitchen. Persons were sent to the quarter 
and other places, in quest of him, but returned without 
him; Hardy was no where to be found. Whilst this 
inc{uiry, or rather search, was going on — perceiving that 
my old master had ceased to look upon me as a murderer, 
I asked him to please to tell me what had happened, that 
had been so near proving fatal to me. 

I was now informed, that the young lady who had left 
the house, on the previous evening, in compiany with her 
brother, had been assailed on the road, about four miles 
off, by a black man, who had sprung from a thicket, and 
snatched her from her horse, as she was riding at a short 
distance behind her brother. That the assassin, as soon 
as she was on tlio ground, struck her horse a blow with a 
long stick, which, together with the fright caused by the 
screams of its ridar, when torn from it, had caused it to 
fly off at full speed; and the horse of the brother, also 
taking fright, followed in pursuit, notwithstanding all the 
exertions of the lad to stop it. All the account the 
brother could give of the matter, was, that as his horse 
ran with him, he saw the negro drag his sister into the 
woods, and heard her screams for a short time. He was 
not able to stop his horse, until he reached home, when 
he gave information to his mother and her family. That 
people had been scouring the woods all night, and all the 



CHARLES BALL. 197 

morning, without being able to find the young lady. 

When intelligence of this- horrid crime was brought to 
the house of my master, Hardy was the first to receive it ; 
he having gone to take the horse of the person — a young 
gentleman of the neighborhood — -who bore it, and who 
immediately returned to join his friends, in their search 
for the dead body. 

As soon as the messenger was gone, Hardy had come 
to my master, and told him, that if he would prevent me 
from murdering him, he would disclose the perpetrator of 
the crime. He was then ordered to communicate all he 
knew on the subject; and declared, that having gone into 
the woods the day before, to hunt squirrels, he staid until 
it was late, and on his return home, hearing the shrieks of 
a woman, he had proceeded cautiously to the place ; but 
before he could arrive at the spot, the cries had ceased; 
nevertheless, he had found me, after some search, with 
the body of the young lady, whom I had just killed, and 
that I was about to kill him too, with a hickory club, but 
he had saved his life by promising that he would never 
betray me. He was glad to leave me; and what I had 
done with the body, he did not know. 

Hardy was known in the neighborhood, and his charac- 
ter had been good. I was a stranger, and on inquiry, the, 
black people in the kitchen supported Hardy, by saying, 
that I had been seen going to the woods, before night, by 
the way of the road, which the deceased had travelled. 
These circumstances were deemed conclusive against me 
by my master; and as the ofi'ence, of which I was believed 
to be guilty, was the highest that can be committed by a 
slave, according to the opinion of owners, it was deter- 
mined to punish me in a way unknown to the law, and to 
inflict tortures upon me, which the law would not tolerate. 



198 THE ADVEKTUItES OF 

I was now released, and thougli very weak from the effects 
of bleeding, I was yet able to return to my own lodgings. 

I had no doubt, that Hardy was the perpetrator of the 
crime, for which I was so near losing my life j and now 
recollected, that when I was at the kitchen of the great 
house, on Sunday, he had disappeared a short time before 
sundown, as I had looked for him when I was going to set 
my snares, but could not find him. I went back to the 
house, and communicated this fact to my master. 

By this time, nearly twenty white men had collected 
about the dwelling, with the intention of going to search 
for the body of the lost lady ; but it was now resolved to 
make the look-out double, and to give it the two-fold 
character of a pursuit of the living, as well as a seeking 
for the dead. 

I now returned to my lodgings, in the quarter, and soon 
fell into a profound sleep, from which I did not awake 
until long after night, when all was quiet, and the stillness 
of undisturbed tranquility prevailed over our little com- 
munity. I felt restless, and sunk into a labyrinth of 
painful reflections, upon the horrid and perilous condition 
from which I had this day escaped, as "it seemed merely by 
chance ; and as I slept until all sensations of drowsiness 
had left me, I rose from my bed, and walked out by the 
light of the moon, which was now shining. After being 
in the open air some time, I thought of the snares that I 
had set on Sunday evening, and determined to go and see 
if they had taken any game. I sometimes caught opos- 
sums in my snares ; and as these animals were very fat at 
this season of the year, I felt a hope that I might be for- 
tunate enough to get one to-night. I had been at my 
snares, and had returned as far as the road, near where I 
had seen the young lady and her brother on horseback, on 



CHARLES BALL. 



199 



Sunday evening, and had seated myself under the boughs 
of a holly bush that grew there. It so happened, that 
the place where I sat, was in the shade of the bush, within 
a few feet of the road, but screened from it by some small 
boughs. In this position, which I had taken by accident, 
I could see a great distance along the road, towards the 
end of my master's lane. Though covered as I was, by 
the shade, and enveloped in boughs, it was difficult for a 
person in the road to see me. 

The occurrence that had befallen me, in the course of 
the previous day, had rendered me nervous, and easily 
susceptible of all the emotions of fear. I had not been 
long in this place, when I thought I heard sounds, as of a 
person walking on the ground, at a quick pace ; and look- 
ing along the road, towards the lane, I saw the form of 
some one passing through a space in the road, where the 
beams of the moon, piercing between two trees, reached 
the ground. When the moving body passed into the 
shade, I could not see it; but in a short time it came so 
near, that I could distinctly see that it was a man, ap- 
proaching me by the road. When he tame opposite me, 
and the moon shone full in his face, I knew him to be a 
young mulatto, named David, the coachman of a widow 
lady, who resided somewhere near Charleston; but who 
had been at the house of my master for two or three 
weeks, as a visiter, with her two daughters. 

This man passed on at a quick step, without observing 
me ; and the suspicion instantly rivited itself in my mind 
that he was the murderer, for whose crime I had already 
suffered so much, and that he was now on his way to the 
place where he had left the body, for the purpose of re- 
moving, or burying it in the earth. I was confident that 
no honest purpose could bring him to this place at this 



200 THE ADVENTURES OF 

time of niglit; aloue, I was about two miles from Lome, 
and an equal distance from the spot wliere tlie girl had 
been seized. 

Of her subsequent murder, no one entertained a doubt; 
for it was not to be expected, that the fellow who had 
been guilty of one great crime, would flinch from the 
commission of another of equal magnitude, and suffer his 
victim to exist, as a witness to identify his person. 

I felt animated by a spirit of revenge against the 
wretch, whoever he might be, who had brought me so 
near to torture and death ; and feeble and weak as I was, 
resolved to pursue the foot-steps of this coachman, at a 
wary and cautious distance, and ascertain, if possible, the 
object of his visit to these woods, at this time of night. 

I waited until he had passed me, more than a hundred 
yards ; and until I could b:irely discover his form in the 
faint light of the deep shade of the trees, when stealing 
quietly into the road, I followed with the caution of a spy, 
traversing the camp of an enemy. We were now in a 
dark pine forest, and on both sides of us, were tracts of 
low swamj^y grourfd, covered with thickets so dense, as to 
be diflicult of penetration, even by a person on foot. The 
road led along a neck of elevated and dry ground, that di- 
vided these swamps for more than a mile, when they ter- 
minated, and were succeeded by ground that produced 
scarcely any other timber, than a scrubby kind of oak, 
called black jack. It was amongst these black jacks, 
about half a mile beyond the swamps, that the lady had 
been carried off. I had often been here, for the purpose 
of snaring and trapping the small game of these woods, 
and was well acquainted with the topography of this 
forest, for some distance, on both sides of the road. 
It was necessary for me to use the utmost caution, in 



CHARLES BALL. 20l 

the enterprise 1 was now engaged in. The road we were 
now travelling, was in no place very broad, and at some 
points, barely wide enough to permit a carriage to pass 
between the trees that lined its sides. In some places, 
it was so dark that I could not see the man, whose steps 
I followed; but was obliged to depend on the sound, pro* 
duced by the tread of his feet upon the ground. I 
deemed it necessary to keep as close as possible, to the 
object of my pursuit, lest he should suddenly turn into 
the swamp, on one side or the other of the road, and 
elude my vigilance; for I had no doubt that he would quit 
the road, somewhere. As we approached the termination 
of the low grounds, my anxiety became intense, lest he 
should escape me ; and at one time, I could not have been 
more than one hundred feet behind him ; but he continued 
his course, until he reached the oak woods, and came to a 
place where an old cart road led off to the left, along the 
side of the dark swamp, as it was termed in the neighbor- 
hood. 

This road the mulatto took, without turning to look 
behind him. Here my difficulties and perils increased, 
for I now felt myself in danger, as I had no longer any 
doubt, that I was on the trail of the murderer, and that, 
if discovered by him, my life would be the price of my 
curiosity. I was too weak to be able, to struggle with 
him, for a minute ; though if the blood which I had lost 
through his wickedness, could have been restored to my 
reins, I could have seized him by the neck and strangled 
him. 

The road I now had to travel was so little frequented^ 

that bushes of the ground oak and bearberry stood thick in 

almost every part of it. Many of these bushes were full 

of dry leaves, which had been touched by the frost, but 

R 



202 THE ADVENTURES OF 

had not yet fallen. It was easy for me to follow him, for 
I pursued by the noise he made amongst these bushes; 
but it was not so easy for me to avoid, on my part, the 
making of a rustling and agitation of the bushes, which 
might expose me to detection. I was now obliged to 
depend wholly on my ears to guide my pursuit, my eyes 
being occupied in watching my own way, to enable me to 
avoid every object, the touching of which was likely to 
produce sound. 

I followed this road more than a mile, led by the crack- 
ing of sticks or the shaking of leaves. At length I heard 
a loud, shrill whistle, and then a total silence succeeded. 
1 now stood still, and in a few seconds heard a noise in 
the swamp like the drumming of a pheasant. Soon after- 
wards I heard the breaking of sticks, and the sounds 
caused by the bending of branches of trees. In a little 
time, I was satisfied that something having life was 
moving in the swamp, and coming towards the place where 
the mulatto stood. 

This was at the end of the cart-road, and opposite some 
large pine trees which grew in the swamp, at the distance 
of two or three hundred yards from its margin. The 
noise in the swamp still approached us ; and at length a 
person came out of the thicket, and stood for a minute or 
more with the mulatto whom I had followed; and then 
they both entered the swamp, and took the course of the 
pine trees, as I could easily distinguish by my ears. 

When they were gone, I advanced to the end of the 
road, and sa* down upon a log, to listen to their progress 
through the swamp. At length it seemed that they had 
stopped, for I no longer heard anything of them. 
Anxious, however, to ascertain more of this mysterious 
business, I remained in silenee on the log, determined to 



CHARLES BILL. 



20^ 



stay there until day^ if I could not sooner learn some- 
thing to satisfy me, why these men had gone kito the 
swamp. All uncertainty upon this subject was, however, 
quickly removed from my mind; for within less than ten 
minutes after I had ceased to hear them moving in the 
thicket, I was shocked by the faint but shrill wailings of 
a female voice, accompanied with exclamations and suppli- 
cations, in a tone so feeble that I could only distinguish a 
few solitary words. 

My mind comprehended the whole ground of this matter 
at a glance. The lady supposed to have been murdered 
on Sunday evening, was still living, and concealed by the 
two fiends who had passed out of my sight but a few 
minutes before. The one I knew, for I had examined hig 
featifres within a few feet of me, in the full light of the 
moon J and that the other was Hardy, I was as perfectlj 
convinced, as if I had seen him also. 

I now rose to return home, the ciies of the female in 
the swamp still continuing, but growing weaker, and dying 
sway as I receded from the place where I had sat. I was 
now in possession of the clearest evidence of the guilt of 
the two murderers; but I was afraid to communicate my 
knowledge to my master, lest he sliould suspect me of 
being an accomplice in this crime; and it the lady could 
not be recovered alive, I had no doubt that Hardy and his 
companion were sufficiently depraved to charge me as a 
participator witli themselves, to be avenged upon me. I 
was confident that mulatto, David, would return to the 
house before day, and be found in bed in the morning^ 
which be could easily do; for he slept in a part of the stable 
loft, under the pretence of being near the horses of his mis° 
tress. I thought it possible that Hardy might also return 
home that nighty and endeavor to account for hig absenc« 



'20i THE ADVENTURES OF 

from home, on Monday afternoon, by some ingenious lie, 
in the invention of which I knew him to very expert. In 
this case, I saw that I would have to run the risk of being 
overpowered by the number of my false accusers; and as 
I stood alone, they might be yet able sacrifice my life, 
and escape the punishment due to their crimes. After 
much consideration, I came to the resolution of returning, 
as quick as possible, to the quarter, calling up the over- 
seer, and acquainting him with all that I had seen, heard 
and done, in the course of this night. 

As I did not know what time of night it was when I 
left my bed, I was apprehensive that day might break, 
before I could so far mature my plans, as to have persons 
to waylay and arrest the mulatto on his return home ; but 
when I roused the overseer, he told me it was only one 
o'clock, and seemed little inclined to credit my story; but 
after talking to me several minutes, he told me he now, 
more than ever, suspected me to be the murderer; but he 
would go with me, and see if I had told the truth. When 
we arrived at the great house, some of the members of 
the family had not yet gone to bed, having been kept up 
by the arrival of several gentlemen, who had been search- 
ing the woods all day for the lost lady, and who had come 
here to seek lodgings, when it was near midnight. My 
master was in bed, but was called up and listened atten- 
tively to my story, at the close of which he shook his 

head, and said with an oath — "You ^ I believe 

you to be the murderer; but we will go and see if all you 

say is a lie; if it is, the torments of will be pleasure 

to what awaits you; you have escaped once, but you will 
not get off a second time.'' I now found that somebody 
must die, and if the guilty could not be found, the inno- 
cent would have to atone for them. The manner in which 



CHARLES BALL. 205 

tny master delivered his words, assured me -tfiiat tli« life 
of somebody must be takea. 

This new danger aroused my energies, and I told them 
I was ready te go and take the consequences. Accord- 
ingly =the overseer, -my young master, and tliree other 
gentlemen, immediately set out with me. It was agreed 
that we should all travel on foot, the overseer and I going 
n few paces in advance of the others. We proceeded 
silently, but rapidly, on our way; and as we passed it, I 
shewed them the place where I sat under the holly bush, 
when th'e mulatto passed me. We neither saw nor heard 
any person on the road, and reached the log at the end of 
the eart-road, where I sat when -I heard the cries in th-s 
swamp. All was now quiet, and our party lay down in 
the bushes on each side of a large gum tree, at the root 
€>f which the two murderers stood, when they talked 
together, before they entered the thicket. We had not 
been here more than an hour, when I heard, as I lay with 
my head near the ground, a noise in the swamp, which I 
believed could only be made by those whom we sought. 
I, however, said nothing, and the gentlemen did not hear 
it. It was caused, as I afterwards ascertained, by drag- 
ging the fallen branch of a tree along the ground, for the 
purpose of lighting the fire. 

The night was very clear and serene; its silence being 
only broken at intervals, by the hooting of the great long- 
eared owls, which are numerous in these swamps. I felt 
oppressed by the cold, and was glad to hear the crowing 
of a cock, at a great distance, announcing the approach of 
day. This was followed, after a short interval, by the 
cracking of sticks, and otiier tokens, which I knew could 
proceed only from the motion of living bodies. I now 
whispered to the overseer, who lay near me, thai ri would 



206 THE ADVENTURES OF 

Boon appear whether I had spoken the truth or not. All 
were now satisfied that people were coming out of the 
swamp, for we heard them speak to each other. 

I desired the overseer to advise the other gentlemen to 
let the culprits come out of the swamp, and gain the high 
ground, before we attempted to seize them ; but this coun- 
sel was, 'unfortunately, not taken; and when they came 
near to the gum tree, and it could be clearly seen that 
there were two men, and no more, one of the gentlemen 
called out to them to stop, or they were dead. Instead, 
however, of stopping, they both sprang forward arid took to 
flight. They did not turn into the swamp, for the gentle- 
man who ordered them to stop was in their rear, they 
having already passed him. At the moment they started 
to run, each of the gentlemen fired two pistols at them. 
The pistols made the forest ring on all sides, and I sup- 
posed it was impossible for -either of the fugitives to 
escape from so many balls. This was, however, not the 
case; for only one of them was injured. The mulatto, 
David had one arm and one leg broken, and fell about ten 
yards from us; but Hardy escaped, and when the smoke 
cleared away, he was nowhere to be seen. 

On being interrogated, David aoknowledged that the 
lady was in the swamp, on a small island, and was yet 
alive; that he and Hardy had gone from the house, on 
Sunday, for the purpose of w^aylaying and carrying her 
off, and intended to kill her little brother; this part of 
the duty being assigned to him, whilst Hardy was to drag 
the sister from her horse. As they were both mulattos, 
they blacked their faces with charcoal, taken from a pine 
stump partially burned. The boy was riding before the 
sister, and when Hardy seized her and dragged her from 
her horse, she screamed and frightened both the horses. 



CHARLES BALL. 207 

which took off at full speed, by which means the boy 
escaped. Finding that the boy was out of his reach, 
David remained in the bushes until Hardy brought the 
sister to him. They immediately tied a handkerchief 
round her face, so as to cover her mouth and stifle her 
shrieks ; and taking her in their arms, carried her back 
toward my master's house, for some distance through 
the woods, until they came to the cart-road leading along 
the swamp. They then followed this road as far as it led, 
and turning into the swamp, took their victim to a place 
they had prepared for her the Sunday before, on a small 
knoll in the swamp, where the ground was dry. 

Her hands were closely confined, and she was tied by 
the feet to a tree. He said he had stolen some bread, 
and taken it to her this night; but when they unbound 
her mouth, she only wept and made a noise, begging them 
to release her, until they were obliged again to bandage 
her mouth. 

It was now determined by the gentlemen, that as the 
lady was still alive, we ought not to lose a moment in 
endeavoring to rescue her from her dreadful situation. I 
pointed out the large pine trees, in the direction of which 
I heard the cries of the young lady, and near which I 
believed she was ; undertaking, at the same time, to act as 
pilot, in penetrating the thicket. Three of the gentle- 
men and myself accordingly set out, leaving the other 
two with the wounded mulatto, with directions to inform 
us when we deviated from a right line to the pine trees. 
This they were able to do by attending to the noise we 
made, with nearly as much accuracy as if they had seen 
us. 

The atmosphere had now become a little cloudy, and 
the morning was very dark, even in oak woods; but when 



208 THE ADVENTURED OF 

we entered the thickets of the swamp, all objects became 
utterly invisible, and the obscurity was as total as if our 
eyes had been closed. Our companions on the dry ground 
lost sight of the pine trees, and could not give any direc- 
tions in our journey. "We became entangled in briers, 
and vines, and mats of bushes, from which the greatest 
exertions were necessary to disengage ourselves. 

It was so dark, that we could not see the fallen trees, 
and missing these, fell into quagmires, and sloughs of 
mud and water, into which we sunk up to the arm-pits, 
and from which we were able to extricate ourselves, only 
by seizing upon the hanging branches of the surrounding 
trees. After struggling in this half-drowned condition, 
for at least a quarter of an hour, we reached a small dry 
spot, where the gentlemen again held a council as to ulte- 
rior measures. They called to those left on the shore, to 
know if we were proceeding toward the pine trees; but 
received for answer, that the pines were .invisible, and 
they knew not whether we were right or wrong. In this 
state of uncertainty, it was thought most prudent to waif, 
the coming of day, in our present resting place. 

The air was frosty, and in our wet clothes, loaded as 
we were with mud, it may be imagined that our feelings 
were not pleasant; and when the day broke, it brought 
us but little relief; for we found, as soon as it was light 
enough to enable us to see around, that we were en one 
of those ifisulated dry spots, called ^'tnssocJx's/' by the 
people of the south. These tussocJiS are foi'med by clus- 
ters of small trees, which, taking root in the mud, are in 
process of time surrounded by long grass, which, entwi- 
ning its roots with those of the trees, overspread and 
cover the surface of the muddy foundation, by which the 
Bui>crstructuro is supported. These tussocks are often sev- 



CHARLES BALL. 209 

eral yards in diameter. That upon wliich we now were, 
stood in the midst of a great mirey pool, into which we 
were again obliged to launch ourselves, and struggle 
onward for a distance of ten yards, before we reached the 
line of some fallen and decaying trees. 

It was now broad day-light, and we saw the pine trees, 
at the distance of about a hundred yards from us ; but 
even with the assistance of the light, we had great diffi- 
culty in reaching them — to do which, we were compelled 
to travel at least a quarter of a mile by the angles and 
curves of the fallen timber, upon which alone we could 
walk ; this part of the swamp being a vast half fluid bog. 

It was sunrise when we reached the pines, which we 
found standing upon a small islet of firm ground, con- 
taining, as well as I could judge, about half an acre, cov- 
ered with a heavy growth of white maples, swamp oaks, a 
few large pines^ and a vast mat of swamp laurel, called in 
the South, ivy. I had no doubt, that the object of our 
search was somewhere on this little island ; but small as 
it was, it was no trifling aff'air to give every part of it a 
minute examination, for the stems and branches of the 
ivy, were so minutely interwoven with each other, and 
spread along the ground in so many curves and crossings, 
that it was impossible to proceed a single rod, without 
lying down and creeping along the earth. 

The gentlemen agreed, that if any one discovered the 
young lady, he should immediately call to the others; and 
we all entered the thicket. I however, turned along the 
edge of the island, with the intention of making its cir- 
cuit, for the purpose of tracing, if possible, the foot-steps 
of those who had passed between it and the main shore. 
I made my way more than half round the island, without 
jniich difficulty, and without discovering any signs of 



21(r THE ADVENTURES OF 

persons having been here before me ; but in crossing the 
trunk of a large tree, which had fallen, and the top of 
which extended far into the ivy, I perceived some stains 
of mud, on the bark of the log. Looking inio the swamp, 
I saw that the root of this tree was connected with other 
fallen timber, extending beyond the reach of my vision, 
which was obstructed by the bramble of the swamp, and 
the numerous ever-greens, growing here. I now advanced 
along the trunk of the tree, until I reached its topmost 
branches, and here discovered evident signs of a small 
trail, leading into the thicket of ivy. Creeping along, 
and following this trail, by the small bearberry bushes 
that had been trampled down, and had no^ again risen to 
an erect position, I was led almost across the island, and 
found that the small bushes were discomposed, quite up 
to the edge of a vast heap of the branches of ever-green 
trees, produced by the falling of several large juniper 
cypress trees, which grew in the swamp in a cluster, and 
having been blown down, had fallen with their tops 
athwart each other, and upon the almost impervious mat 
of ivys, with which the surface of the island was coated 
over. 

I stood and looked at this mass of entangled gi'een 
brush, but could not perceive the slightest marks of any 
entrance into its labyrinths ; nor did it seem possible for 
any creature, larger than a squirrel, to penetrate it. It 
now, for the first time, struck me as a great oversight in 
the gentlemen, that they had not compelled the mulatto 
David, to describe the place where they had concealed 
the lady; and as the forest was so dense, that no commu- 
nication could be had with the shore, either by words or 
signs, we could not now procure any information on this 
subject. I therefore called to the gentlemen, who were 



CHARLES BALL^ 211 

oa the island with me, and desired them to come to me 
without delay. 

Small as this island was, it was after the lapse of many 
minutes, that the overseer and the other gentlemen arri- 
ved where I stood ; and when they came, they would have 
been the subjects of mirthful emotions, had not the tragic 
circumstances, in which I was placed, banished from the 
heart, every feeling but that of the most profound melan- 
choly. 

"When the gentlemen had assembled, I informed them 
of signs of footsteps, that I had traced from the other side 
of the island; and told them, that I believed the young 
lady lay somewhere under the heap of brushwood, before 
us. This opinion obtained but little credit, because ther© 
was no opening in the brush, by which any one could 
enter it; but on going a few paces round the heap, I per- 
ceived a small snaggy pole, resting on the brush, and 
nearly concealed by it, with the lower end stuck in the 
ground. The branches had been cut from this pole, at 
the distance of three or four inches from the main stem, 
which made it a tolerable substitute for a ladder. I im- 
mediately ascended the pole, which led me to the top of 
the pile ; and here I discovered an opening in the brush, 
between the forked top of one of the cypress trees, 
through which a man might easily pass. Applying my 
head to this aperture, I distinctly heard a quick and labo- 
rious breathing, like that of a person in extreme illness; 
and again called the gentlemen to follow me. 

When they came up the ladder, the breathing was 
audible to all; and one of the gentlemen, whom I now 
perceived to be the stranger, who was with us in my mas- 
ter's cellar, when I was bled^ slid down into the dark and 
narrow passage, without uttering a word. I confess, that 



212 THE ADVENTURES Of 

some feelings of trepidation passed througli my nervef 
when I stood alone ; but now that a leader had preceded 
me, I followed, and glided through the smooth and elastic 
cypress tops, to the bottom of this vast labyrinth of 
green boughs. 

"When I reached the grouna, I found myself in contact 
with the gentleman, who was in advance of me, and near 
one end of a large concave, oblong, open space, formed 
by the branches of the trees, having been supported and 
kept above the ground, partly by a cluster of very large 
and strong ivys, that grew here, and partly by a young 
gum tree, which had been bent into the form of an arch, 
by the falling timber. 

Though we could not see into this leafy cavern, from 
above, yet when we had been in it a few moments, we had 
light enough to see the objects around us, with tolerable 
clearness ; but that which surprised us both greatly, was, 
that the place was totally silent, and we could not perceive 
the appearance of any living thing, except ourselves. 

After we had been here some minutes, our vision 
became still more distinct, and I saw, at the other end of 
the open space, ashes of wood, and some extinguished 
brands, but there was no smoke. Going to these ashes, 
and stirring them with a stick, I found coals of fire cai'e- 
fuUy covered over, in a hole six or eight inches deep. 

When he saw the fire, the gentleman spoke to me, and 
expressed his astonishment, that we heard the breathing 
no longer; but he had scarcely uttered these words, when 
a faint groan, as of a woman in great pain, was heard to 
issue, apparently from the ground; but a motion of 
branches on our right, assured me that the sufferer was 
concealed there. The gentleman sprung to the spot, 
pushed aside the pendant boughs, stooped low beneath the 



CHARLES BALL. 213 

bent ivys, and came out, bearing in his hands, a delicate 
female figure. As he turned round, and exposed her half 
closed eye, and white forehead, to the light, he exclaimed, 
''Eternal God, Maria, is it you V He then pressed her 
to his bosom, and sunk upon the ground, still holding her 
closely in his embrace. 

The lady lay motionless in his arms, and I thought she 
was dead. Her hair hung matted and disheveled from 
her head; a handkerchief, once white, but now soiled with 
dust, and stained with blood, was bound firmly round her 
head, covering her mouth and chin, and was fastened at 
the back of the neck, by a double knot, and secured by a 
ligature of cypress bark. 

I knew not whom most to pity — the lady who now lay 
insensible, in the arms that still clasped her tenderly ; or 
the unhappy gentleman, who, having cut the cords from 
her limbs, and the handkerchief from her face, now sat, 
and silently gazed upon her death-like countenance. He 
uttered not a sigh, and moved not a joint; but his breast 
heaved with agony ; the sinews and muscles of his neck 
rose and fell, like those of a man in convulsions ; all the 
lineaments of his face were alternately contracted and ex- 
panded, as if his last moments were at hand; whilst great 
drops of sweat rolled down his forehead, as though he 
struggled against an enemy, whose strength was more 
than human. 

Oppressed by the sight of so much wretchedness, I 
turned from its contemplation, to hasten the punishment 
of the crimes that had produced it ; and called aloud to 
the gentleman without, (who had all this time been wait- 
ing to hear from us,) to come up the ladder, to the top of 
the pile of boughs. The overseer was quickly at the top 
of the opening, by which I had descended : and I now 

s 



214 THE ADVENTURES OF 

informed him, that we had found the lady. He ordered 
me to hand her up — and I desired the gentleman who was 
with me, to permit me to do so ; but this he refused — and 
mounting the boughs of the fallen trees, and supporting 
himself by the strong branches of the ivys, he quickly 
reached the place where the overseer stood. 

He even here refused to part from his charge, but bore 
her down the ladder alone. He was, however, obliged to 
accept aid, in conveying her through the swamp to the 
place where we had left the two gentlemen, with the 
wounded mulatto, whose sufferings, demon as he was, 
were sufficient to move the hardest heart. His right arm 
and left leg were broken ; and he had lost much blood, 
before we returned from the island ; and as he could not 
walk, it was necessary to carry him home. "We had not 
brought any horses ; and until the lady was recovered, no 
one seemed to think any more about the mulatto, after he 
was shot down. 

It was proposed to send for a horse, to take David 
home; but it was finally agreed, that we should leave 
him in the woods, where he was, until a man could be 
sent for him, with a cart. At the time we left him, his 
groans and lamentations seemed to excite no sympathy in 
the breast of any. More cruel sufferings yet awaited him. 

The lady was carried home, in the arms of the gentle- 
men; and she did not speak, until after she was bathed 
and put to bed in my master's house, as I afterwards 
heard. I know she did not speak on the way. She died 
on the fourth day after her rescue, of the violence she had 
suffered; and before her death, related the circumstances 
of her misfortune, as I was told by a colored woman, who 
attended her in her illness, in the following manner. 

As she was riding in the dusk ofthe e-vening, at a rapid 



CHARLES BALL 215 

trot, a few yards behind her brother, a black man sprang 
from behind a tree, standing close by the side of the road; 
seized her by her riding dress, and dragged her to the 
ground, but failed to catch the bridle of the horse, which 
sprang off at full speed. Another negro immediately 
came to the aid of the first, and said, ''I could not catch 
him — we must make haste/' They carried her as fast as 
they could go, to the place where we found her, and staid 
with her until near day break; when they bound her 
hands, feet and mouth, and left her until the next night, 
when they again returned ; and had left her the second 
m\)rning, only a few minutes, when she heard the report 
of guns. Soon after this, by great efforts, she extricated 
one of her feet from the bark, with which she was bound; 
but finding herself too weak to stand, she crawled as far 
as she could, under the boughs of the trees, hoping that 
when her assassins returned again, they would not be able 
to find her; and that she might there die alone. 

Exhausted by the efforts she had made to remove her- 
self, she fell into the stupor of sleep, from which she was 
aroused by the noise we made, when we descended into 
her cavern. She then supposing us to be her destroyers 
returned again, lay still, and breathed as softly as possible 
to prevent us from hearing her; but when she heard the 
voice of the gentleman who was with me, the tones of 
which were familiar to her, she groaned and moved her 
feet, to let us know where she was. This exertion, and 
the idea of her horrid condition, overcame the strength of 
her nerves; and when her deliverer raised her from the 
ground, she had swooned, and was unconscious of all 
things. 

We had no sooner arrived at the house, than inquiry 
was made for Hardy; but it was ascertained in the kitchen 



210 THE ADVENTURES OF 

that he had not been seen^ since the previous evening, at 
night fall, when he had left the kitchen for the purpose of 
going to sleep at the stable, with David, as he had told 
one of the black women ; and preparation was immedi- 
ately made to go in pursuit of him. 

For this purpose, all the gentleman present, equipped 
themselves with pistols, fowling pieces, and horns — such 
as are used by fox hunters. 3Iessengers were despatched 
round the country, to give notice to all the planters 
within the distance of many miles, of the crime that had 
been committed, and of the escape of one of its perpetra- 
tors, with a request to them to come without delay, and 
join in the pursuit, intended to be given. Those who had 
dogs, trained to chase thieves, were desired to bring them; 
and a gentleman who lived twelve miles off, and who 
owned a blood hound, was sent for, and requested to come 
with his dog, in all haste. 

In consequence, I suppose, of the information I had 
given, I was permitted to be present at these delibera- 
tions; and though my advice was not asked, I was often 
interrogated, concerning my knowledge of the affair. 
Some proposed to go at once, with dogs and horses, into 
the woods, and traverse the swamp and thickets, for the 
purpose of rousing Hardy from the place of concealment 
he might have chosen ; but the opinion of the overseer 
prevailed, who thought, that from the intimate knowledge 
possessed by him, of all the swamps and coverts in the 
neighborhood, there would be little hope of discovering 
him in this manner. The overseer advised them to wait 
the coming of the gentleman with his blood hound, before 
they entered the woods ; for the reason, that if the blood 
hound could be made to take the trail, he would certainly 
find his game, before ho quit it, if not thrown off the 



CHARLES BALL. 217 

scent by the men, horses and dogs crossing his course ; 
but if the blood hound could not take the scent, they 
might then adopt the proposed plan of pursuit, with as 
much success as at present. This counsel being adopted, 
the horses were ordered into the stable ; and the gentle- 
men entered the house to take their breakfast, and await 
the arrival of the blood hound. 

Nothing was said of the mulatto, David, who seemed 
to be forgotten — not a word being spoken by any one, of 
bringing him from the woods. I knew that he was suf- 
fering the most agonizing pains, and great as were his 
crimes, his groans and cries of anguish still seemed to 
echo in my ears; but I was afraid to make any applica. 
tion in his behalf, lest even yet, I might be suspected of 
some participation in his offences ; fori knew that the 
most horrid punishments were often inflicted upon slaves, 
merely on suspicion. 

As the morning advanced, the number of men and 
horses in front of my master's mansion increased; and 
before ten o'clock, I think there were at least fifty of 
each — the horses standing hitched, and the men convers- 
ing in groups without, or assembled together within the 
house. 

At length the owner of the blood hound came, bringing 
with him his dog, in a chaise, drawn by one horse. The 
harness was removed from the horse, its place supplied by 
a saddle and bridle, and the whole party set off for the 
woods. As they rode away, my master, who was one of 
the company, told me to follow them; but we had pro- 
ceeded only a little distance, when the gentlemen stopped, 
and my master, after speaking with the owner of the dog, 
told the overseer to go back to the house, and get some 
piece of the clothes of Hardy, that had been worn bv Iiim 

s* 



218 THE ADVENTURES OF 

lately. The overseer returned^ and we all proceeded for- 
ward to the place where David lay. 

We found him where we had left him, greatly weak- 
ened by the loss of blood, and complaining that the cold 
air, caused his wounds to smart intolerably. When I 
came near him, he looked at me, and told me I had be- 
trayed him. None of the gentlemen seemed at all moved 
by his sufferings, and when any of them spoke to him, it 
was with derision, and every epithet of scorn and con- 
tumely- As it was apparent that he could not escape, no 
one proposed to remove him, to a place of greater safety ; 
but several of the horsemen, as they passed, lashed him 
with the thongs of their whips ; but I do not believe he 
felt these blows — the pain he endured from his wounds, 
being so great, as to drown the sensation of such minor 
afflictions. 

The day had already become warm, although the night 
had been cold ; the sun shone with great clearness^ and 
many carrion crows, attracted by the scent of blood, were 
perched upon the trees near where we now were. 

When the overseer came up with us, he brought an old 
blanket, in which Hardy had slept for some time, and 
handed it to the owner of the dog; who having first 
caused the hound to smell of the blanket, untied the cord 
in which he had been led, and turned him into the woods. 
The dog we nt from us fifty or sixty yards, in a right line, 
then made a circle around us, again commenced his circu- 
lar movement, and pursued it nearly half round. Then 
he dropped his nose to the ground, snuffed the tainted sur- 
face, and moved off through the- woods slowly, almost 
touching the earth with his nose. The owner of the .dog, 
and twelve or fifteen others followed him, whilst the resi- 
due of the party dispersed themselves along the edge of 



CHARLES BALL. 219 

the swamp; and the overseer ordered me to stay and 
watch the horses of those who dismounted, going himself 
on foot in the pursuit. 

When the gentlemen were all gone out of sight, I went 
to David, who lay all this time within my view, for the 
purpose of asking him if I could render him any assis- 
tance. He begged me to bring him some water, as he 
was dying of thirst, no less than with the pain of his 
wounds. One of the horsemen had left a large tin horn 
hanging on his saddle ; this I took, and stopping the small 
end closely with leaves, filled it with water from the 
swamp, and gave it to the wounded man, who drank it, 
and then turning his head towards me, said — '^Hardy and 
I, had laid a plan to have this thing brought upon you, 
and to have you hung for it — but you have escaped.'' 
He then asked me if they intended to leave him to die in 
the woods, or to take him home and hang him. I told 
him I had heard them talk of taking him home in a cart, 
but what was to be done with him I did not know. I 
felt a horror of the crimes committed by this man; was 
pained by the sight of his sufferings, and being unable to 
relieve the one, or to forgive the other, went to a place 
where I could neither see nor hear him, and sat down to 
await the return of those who had gone in pursuit of 
Hardy. 

In the circumstances which surrounded me, it cannot 
be supposed that my feelings were pleasant, or that time 
moved very fleetly; but painful as my situation was, 1 
was obliged to bear it for many hours. From the time 
the gentlemen left me,. I neither saw nor heard them, until 
late in the afternoon, when five or six of them returned, 
having lost their companions in the woods. 

Toward sundown, I heard a great noise of horns blown, 



220 THE ADVENTURES OF 

and of men shouting at a distance in the forest ; and soon 
after, my master, the owner of the blood hound, and 
many others, returned, bringing with them Hardy, whom 
the hound had followed ten or twelve miles, through the 
swamps and thickets; had at last caught him, and would 
soon have killed him, had he not been compelled to relin- 
quish his prey. When the party had all returned, a kind 
of court was held in the woods, where we then were, for 
the purpose of determining what punishment should be 
inflicted upon Hardy and David. All agreed at once, that 
an example of the most terrific character ought to be made 
of such atrocious villuins, and that it would defeat the 
ends of justice, to deliver these fellows up to the civil 
authority, to be hanged like common murderers. The 
next measure, was to settle upon the kind of punishment 
to be inflicted upon them, and the manner of executing 
the sentence. 

Hardy was all this time, sitting on the ground, covered 
with blood, and yet bleeding profusely, in hearing of his 
inexorable judges. Tlie dog had mangled both his arms 
and hands, in a shocking manner; torn a large piece of 
flesh entirely away from one side of his breast, and sunk 
his fangs deep in the side of his neck. No other human 
creature, that I have ever seen, presented a more deplora- 
ble spectacle of mingled crime and cruelty. 

It was now growing late, and the fate of these misera- 
ble men was to be decided before the company separated 
to go to their several homes. One proposed to burn them, 
another to flay them alive, and a third to starve them to 
death, and many other modes of slowly and tormentingly 
extinguishing life, were named; but that which was finally 
adopted, was, of all others, the most horrible. The 
wretches were unnnimouply sentenced to be stripped 



CHARLES BALL. 221 

naked; and bound down securely upon their backs, on the 
naked earth, in sight of each other ; to have their moutha 
closely covered with bandages, to prevent them from 
making a noise, to frighten away the birds, and in this 
manner to be left, to be devoured alive by the carrion 
crows and buzzards, which swarm in every part of South 
Carolina. 

The sentence was instantly carried into effect, so far as 
its execution depended on us. Hardy and his companion 
were divested of their clothes, stretched upon their backs 
on the ground; their mouths bandaged with handker- 
chiefs ; their limbs extended ; and these, together with 
their necks, being crossed by numerous poles, were kept 
close to the earth, by forked sticks .driven into the ground, 
so as to prevent the possibility of moving any part of 
their persons; and in this manner, these wicked men 
were left to be torn in pieces, by birds of prey. The 
buzzards and carrion crows, always attack dead bodies by 
pulling out and consuming the eyes first. They then tear 
open the bowels, and feed upon the intestines. 

We returned to my master's plantation, and I did not 
see this place again, until the next Sunday, when several 
of my fellow slaves went with me, to see the remains of 
the dead, but we found only their bones. Great flocks of 
buzzards, and carrion crows, were assembled in the trees, 
giving a dismal aspect to the woods; and I hastened to 
abandon a place, fraught with so many afflicting recollec- 
tions. 

The lady, who had been the innocent sacrifice of the 
brutality of the men, whose bones I had seen bleaching 
in the sun, had died on Saturday evening, and her corpse 
was buried on Monday, in a grave-yard on my master 8 
plantation. I have never seen a large plantation, in Car- 



222 THE ADVENTURES OF 

olina, without its burying ground. This burying ground 
is not only the place of sej^ulture of the family, who are 
the proprietors of the estate, but also of many other 
persons, who have lived in the neighborhood. Half an 
acre, or an acre of ground, is appropriated as a grave-yard, 
on one side of which the proprietors of the estate, from 
age to age, are buried; whilst the other parts of the 
ground are open to strangers, poor people of their vicinity, 
and in general, to all who choose to inter their dead 
within its boundaries. This custom prevails as far north 
as Maryland; and it seems to me to be much more con- 
sonant to the feelings of solitude and tender recollections, 
which we alwa3^s associate with the memory of departed 
friends, than the practice of promiscuous interment in a 
church-yard, where all idea of seclusion is banished, by 
the last home of the dead being thrown open to the rude 
intrusion of strangers; where the sanctity of 'the sepul- 
chre is treated as a common, and where the grave itself is, 
in a few years, torn up, or covered over, to form a tempo- 
rary resting place for some new tenant. 

The family of the deceased lady, though not very weal- 
thy, was amongst the most ancient and respectable in this 
part of the country; and on Sunday, whilst the dead body 
lay in my master's house, there was a continual influx and 
efflux of visiters, in carriages, on horse-back, and on foot. 
The house was open to all who chose to come; and the best 
wines, cakes, sweet-meats and fruits, were handed about to 
the company by the servants ; though I observed that none 
remained for dinner, except the relations of the deceased, 
those of my master's famil}^, and the young gentleman 
who was with me on the island. The visiters remained 
but a short time when they came, and were nearly all in 
mourning. This was the first time that I had seen a large 



CHARLES BALL. 223 

number of the fashionable people of Carolina assembled 
together, and their appearance impressed me with an 
opinion favorable to their character. I had never seen an 
equal number of people anywhere, whose deportment was 
more orderly and decorous, nor whose feelings seemed to 
be more in accordance with the solemnity of the event 
which had brought them together. 

I had been' ordered by the overseer, to remain at the 
great house until the afternoon, for the purpose, as I after- 
wards learned, of being seen by those who came to see 
the corpse; and many of the ladies and gentlemen in- 
quired for me, and when I was pointed out to them, com- 
mended my conduct and fidelity, in discovering the authors 
of the murder; condoled with me for having sufi'ered 
innocently, and several gave me money. One old lady, 
who came in a pretty carriage drawn by two black horses, 
gave me a dollar. 

On Monday the funeral took place, and several hundred 
persons followed the corpse to the grave, over which a 
minister delivered a short sermon. The young gentleman 
who was with me when we found the deceased on the 
island, walked with her mother to the grave, and the 
little brother followed with a younger sister. 

After the interment, wines and refreshments were 
handed round to the whole assembly, and at least a hun- 
dred persons remained for dinner, with my master's fam- 
ily. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the carriages and 
horses were ordered to the door of the court-yard of the 
house, and the company retired. At sundown the plan- 
tation was as quiet as if its peace had never been disturbed. 



224 THE ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER XIV. 

I have before observed, that the negroes of the cotton 
plantations are exceedingly superstitious; and they are 
indeed prone, beyond all other people that I have ever 
known, to believe in ghosts, and the existence of an infin- 
ite number of supernatural agents. No story of a mi- 
raculous character, can be too absurd to obtain credit with 
them; and a narrative is not the less eagerly listened to, 
nor the more cautiously received, because it is impossible 
in its circumstances. 

Within a few weeks after the deaths of the two male- 
factors, to whose horrible crimes, were awarded equally 
horrible punishments, the forest that had been the scene 
of these bloody deeds, was reported, and believed to be 
visited at night, by beings of unearthly make, whose 
groans and death struggles, were heard in the darkest 
recesses of the woods, amidst the flapping of the wings 
of vultures, the fluttering of carrion crows, and the dismal 
croaking of ravens. In the midst of this nocturnal din, 
the noise caused by the tearing of the flesh from the 
bones, was heard, and the panting breath of the agonized 
sufferer, quivering under the beaks of his tormentors, as 
they consumed his vitals, floated audibly upon the even- 
ing breeze. 

The murdered lady was also seen walking by moonlight, 
near the spot where she had been dragged from her horse, 
wrapped in a blood-stained mantle; overhung with gory 
and dishevelled locks. 

The little island in the swamp, was said to present 



CHARLES BALL. 225 

spoctacles too horrible for human eyes to look upon, and 
sounds were heard to issue from it, which no human ear 
could bear. Terrific and ghastly fii-es were seen to burst 
up at midnight, amongst the ever-greens that clad this 
lonely spot, emitting scents too suffocationg and sickly io 
be endured; whilst demoniac yells, shouts of despair, and 
groans of agony, mingled their echos in tho solitude of 
the woods. 

Whilst I remained in this neighborhood, no colored 
person ever travelled this road alone, after nightfall; and 
many white men would have ridden *ten miles round the 
country, to avoid the passage of the ridge road, after dark. 
Generations must pass away, before the tradition of this 
place will be forgotten; and many a year will open and 
close, before the last face will be pale, or the last heart 
beat, as the twilight traveller skirts the borders of the 
Murderer's Swamp. 

We had allowances of meat distributed to all the people 
twice this fall — once when we had finished the saving of 
the fodder, and again soon after the murder of the young 
lady. The first time we had beef, such as I had driven 
from the woods, when I went to the Alligator pond ; but 
now we had two hogs given to us, which weighed, one a 
hundred and thirty, and the other a hundred and fifty-six. 
pounds. This was very good pork, and I received a pound 
and a quarter as my share of it. This was the first pork 
that I had tasted in Carolina, and it afforded a real feast. 
We had, in our family, full seven pounds of good fat 
meat; and as we now had plenty of sweet potatos, both in 
our gardens and in our weekly allowance, we had on the 
Sunday following the funeral, as good a dinner of stewed 
pork and potatos, as could have been found in all Carolina. 
We did not eat all our meat on Sunday, but kept part of 



226 inB ADVENTURES OP 

it until Tuesday, -when we warmed it in a pot, with an 
addition of parsley and other herbs, and had another very 
comfortable meal. 

I had by this time, become, in some measure, acquain- 
ted with the country, and began to lay and execute plans 
to procure supplies of such things as were not allowed me 
by my master. I understood various methods of entrap- 
ping racoons, and other wild animals that abounded in 
the large swamps of this country; and besides the skins, 
wliich were worth something for their furs, I generally 
procured as many racoons, opossums and rabbits, as affor- 
ded us two or three meals in a week. The woman with 
whom I lived, understood the way of dressing an opossum, 
and I was careful to provide one for our Sunday dinner 
every week, so long as these animals continued fat, and in 
good condition. 

All the people on the plantation did not live as well as 
our family did, for many of the men did not understand 
ti'apping game, and others were too indolent to go far 
enough from home to fmd good places for setting their 
traps. My principal trapping ground was three miles 
from home, and I went three times a week, always after 
aight, to bring home my game, and keep my traps in 
good order. Many of the families in the quarter caught 
no game, and had no meat, except that which we received 
from the overseer, which averaged about six or seven 
meals in the year. 

Lydia, the woman whom I have mentioned heretofore, 
was one of the women whose husbands procured little or 
nothing for the sustenance of their families, and I often 
gave her a quarter of a racoon, or a small opossum, for 
which she appeared very thankful. Her health was not 
good — ^ohe had a bad cough, and often told me, she wai 



CHARLES BALL. ' 227 

fevcrlsli and restless at night. It appeared clear to mo 
that this woman's constitution was broken by hardships, 
and sufferings, and that she could not live long in her 
present mode of existence. Her husband, a native of a 
country far in the interior of Africa, said he had been a 
priest in his own nation, and had never been taught to do 
any kind of labor, being supported by the contributions 
of the public ; and he now maintained, as far as he could, 
the same kind of lazy dignity, that he had enjoyed at 
home. He was compelled by the overseer to work, with 
the other hands, in the field, but as soon as he had come 
into his cabin, he took his seat, and refused to give his 
wife the least assistance in doing any thing. She was, 
consequently, obliged to do the little work that it was 
necessary to perform in the cabin ; and also to bear all 
the labor of weeding and cultivating the family patch or 
• garden. The husband was a morose, sullen man, and 
said he formerly had ten wives in his own country, who 
all had to work for, and wait upon him ; and he thought 
himself badly off here, in having but one woman to do 
any thing for him. This man was very irritable, and 
often beat and otherwise maltreajted his wife, on the 
slightest provocation, and the overseer refused to protect 
lier, on the ground, that he never interfered in the family 
quarrels of the black people. I pitied this woman greatly 
but as it vfas not in my power to remove her from the 
presence and authority of her husband, I thought it pru- 
dent not to saj or do anything to provoke him further 
against her. As the winter approached, and the autumnal 
rains set in, she was frequently exposed in the field, and 
was wet for several hours together; this, joined to the 
want of warm and camfortable woollen clothes, caused her 
^.0 contract colds, ajud hoarseness, which increased the 



228 THE ADVENTURES OF 

severity of lier cougli. A few days before Christmas, her 
child died, after an illness of only three days. I assisted 
her and her husband to inter the infant — which was a 
little boy — and its father buried with it a small bow and 
several arrows ; a little bag of parched meal ; a miniature 
canoe, about a foot long, and a little paddle, (with which 
he said it would cross the ocean, to his own country,) a 
small stick, with an iron nail sharpened, and fastened into 
one end of it ; and a piece of white muslin, with several 
curious and strange figures painted on it in blue and red, 
by which, he said, his relations and countrymen would 
know the infant, to be his son, and would i^ceive it accor- 
dingly, on its arrival amongst them. 

Gruel as this man was to his wife, I could not but res- 
pect the sentiments which inspired his affection for his 
child; though it was the affection of a barbarian. Ho 
cut a lock of hair fi-om his head, threw it upon the dead 
infant, and closed the grave with his own hands. He 
then told us, the God of his country was looking at him, 
and was pleased with what he had done. Thus ended the 
funeral service. 

As we returned home, Lydia told me she was rejoiced 
that her child was dead, and out of a world in which sla- 
very and wi'etchedness must have been its only portion. 
I am now, said she, ready to follow my child, and the 
sooner I go, the better for me. She went with us to the 
fioljd until the month of January, when, as we were return- 
ing from our work, one stormy and wet evening, she told 
mo ahe should never pick any more cotton — that her 
strength wag gone, and she could work no more. When 
wo assembled, at the blowing of the horn, on the follow- 
ing morning; Lydia did not appear. The overseer, who 
had always appeared to dislike this woman; when he 



CHARLES BALL. 229 

missed her, swore very angrily, and said he supposed she 
was pretending to be sick, hut if she was, he would soon 
cure her. He then stepped into his house, and took some 
copperas from a little bag, and mixed it with water. I 
followed him to Lydia's cabin, where he compelled her to 
drink this solution of copperas. It caused her to vomit 
violently; and made her exceedingly sick. I think to this 
day, that this act of the overseer, was the most inhuman 
of all those that I hare seen perpetrated upon defenceless 
slaves. 

Lydia was removed that same day to the sick room, in 
a -state of extreme debility and exhaustion. When she 
left this room again, she was a corpse. Her disease was 
a consumption of the lungs, which terminated her life 
e&rly in March. I assisted in carrying her to the grave, 
which I closed upon her, and covered with green turf. 
She sleeps by the side of her infant, in a corner of the 
negro grave-yard, of this plantation. Death was to her a 
welcome messenger, who came to remove her from toil 
that she could not support, and from misery that she 
could not sustain. 

Her life had been a morning of pleasure, but a day of 
bitterness, upon which no sunlight had fallen. Fad she 
known no other mode of existence, than that which she 
saw on this plantation, her lot would have been happiness 
itself, in CMnparison with her actual destiny. Trained up 
as she had beea in Maryland, no greater cruelty could 
have been devised by the malice of her most cunning 
enemy, than to transfer her from the service, and almost 
companionship, of an indulgent and affectionate mistress, 
to the condition in which I saw her, a^d knew her, in the 
cotton fields of South Carolina. 

In Maryland, it is a custom as widely extended as the 



280 THE ADVENTURES OF 

State itself; I believe, to give the slaves a week of holi- 
days, at Christmas; and the master who should attempt 
to violate this usage, would become an object of derision 
amongst his neighbors. But I learned long before Christ- 
mas, that the force of custom was not so binding here, as 
it is farther North. In Maryland, Christmas comes at a 
season of leisure, when the work of the farm, or the 
tobacco plantation, is generally closed for the year ; and, 
if a good supply of firewood has been provided, there 
eeems to be but little for the people to do, and a week lost 
to the master, is a matter of little moment, at a period 
when the days are short and cold; but in the cotton coun- 
try, the case is very different, 

Christmas comes in the very midst of cotton picking. 
The richest and best part of the crop has been secured 
before this period, it is true; but large quantities of cot- 
ton still remain in the field, and every pound that can be 
saved from the winds, or the plough of the next spring, is 
a gain of its value, to the owner of the estate. 

For these reasons, which are very powerful on the side 
of the master, there is but little Christmas on a large cot- 
ton plantation. In lieu of the week of holiday, which 
formerly prevailed, even in Carolina, before cotton was 
cultivated as a crop, the master now gives the people a 
dinner of meat, on Christmas*day, and distributes amongst 
them, their annual allowance of winter clothes, on estates 
where such an allowance is made ; and where it is not, 
some small gratuity supplies its place. 

There are cotton planters who give no clothes to their 
slaves, but expect them to supply themselves with apparel, 
out of the proceeds of their Sunday labor and nightly 
earnings. Clothes of a certain quality, were given to the 
people of the estate on which I lived, at the time of 



CHARLES BALL. 231 

•whicii I now speak ; but they were not at ail sufficient to 
keep us warm and comfortable in the winter; and the 
residue, we had to procure for ourselves. In Georgia, I 
lived three years with one master, and the best master, 
too, that I ever had in the South, who never gave me any 
clothes during that period, except an old great coat, and a 
pair of boots. I shall have occasion to speak of him 
hereafter. 

As Christmas of the year 1805, approached, we were 
all big with hope of obtaining three or four days, at least, 
if not a week of holiday ; but when the day at length 
arrived, we were sorely disappointed, for on Christmas 
eve, when we had come from the field, with our cotton, 
the overseer fell into a furious passion, and swore at us all 
for our laziness; and many other bad qualities. He then 
told us, that he had intended to give us three days, if we 
had worked well, but that we had been so idle, and had 
left so much cotton yet to be picked in the field, that he 
found it impossible to give us more than one day; but 
that he would go to the house, and endeavor to procure a 
meat dinner for us, and a dram in the morning. Accord- 
ingly, on the next morning, we received a dram of peach 
brandy, for each person ; and two hogs, weighing together 
more than three hundred, were slaughtered and divided 
amongst us. 

I went to the field and picked cotton all day, for which 
I was paid by the overseer, and at night I had a good din- 
ner of stewed pork and sweet potatos. Such were the 
beginning and end of my first Christmas on a cotton plan- 
tation. We went to work as usual the next morning, and 
continued our labor through the week, as if Christmas 
had been stricken from the calender. I had already saved 
and laid by a little more than ten dollars in money, but 



232 THE ADVENTURES OF 

part of it had been given to me at the funeral. I was now 
much in want of clothes^ none having been given me 
since I came here. I had, at the commencement of the 
cold weather, cut up my old blanket, and with the aid of 
Lj-'dia, who was a very good seamstress, converted it into 
a pair of trowsers, and a long roundabout jacket ; but this 
deprived me of my bed, which was imperfectly supplied 
by mats, which I made of rushes. The mats were very 
comfortable things to lie upon, but they were by no 
means equal to blankets for covering. 

A report had been current amongst us, for some time, 
that there would be a distribution of clothes, to the peo- 
ple, at New Year's day; but how much, or what kind of 
clothes we were to get, no one pretended to know, except 
that we were to get shoes, in conformity to a long-estab- 
lished rule of this plantation. From Christmas to New 
Year, appeared a long week to me, and I have no doubt 
that it appeared yet longer to some of my fellow-slaves, 
most of whom were entirely barefoot. I had made moc- 
casins, for myself, of the skins of squirrels, that I had 
caught in my traps, and by this means, protected my feet 
from the frost, which was sometimes very heavy and sharp 
in the morning. 

On the first day of January, when wft met at the blow- 
ing of the morning horn, the overseer told us we must all 
proceed to the great house, where we were to receive our 
winter clothes; and surely no order was ever more wil- 
lingly obeyed. When we arrived at the house, our master 
was up, and we were called into the great court-yard in 
front of the dwelling. The overseer now told us that 
shoes would be given to all those who Were able to go to 
the field to pick cotton. This deprived of shoes, the chil- 
dren, and several old persons, whose eye-sight was not 
sufficiently clear to enable them to pick cotton. 



CHARLES BALL. 233 

A new blanket was then given to every one above seven 
years of age — children under seven received no blanket, 
being left to be provided for by their parents. Children 
of this age, and under, go entirely naked, in the day-time, 
and sleep with their mothers at night, or are wrapped up 
together, in such bedding as the mother may possess. 
Children under ten years of age are of little use in 
picking cotton, and it is not supposed that their labor can 
repay the expense of clothing them in a manner to fit them 
to go to the field; they are, therefore, sufi'ered to remain in 
the house or quarter, without clothes, from October to 
April. In summer they do not require clothes, and can 
perform such work as they are able to do, as well without 
garments as with them. 

At the time we received our shoes and blankets, there 
was not a good shirt in our quarter; but all the men and 
women had provided themselves with some sort of woollen 
clothes, out of their own savings. Woollen stuff, for a 
petticoat and short-gown, had also been given, before 
Christmas, to each of the women who were mothers of 
small children, or in such a condition as to render it 
certain that they must, in a short time, become so. 

Many of the women could pick as much cotton as a 
man; and any good hand could earn sixty cents, by pick- 
ing cotton on Sunday; the overseer paying us punctually, 
for all the cotton we brought in on Sunday evening. Be- 
sides this, a good hand could always, in a fine day, pick 
more cotton than was required, to be brought home as a 
day's work. I could not pick as much in a day as some 
of the others, by four or five pounds; but I could gene- 
rally carry home as much beyond the day's work, or task, 
as it is called, as entitled me to receive from five to ten 
cents, every evening, from the overseer. This money wag 



'234 THE ADVENTURES OF 

punctually pakl to me every Saturday night; and in some 
weeks I cleared, in this way, as high as fifty cents, over 
and above what I earned on Sunday. One of the men 
cleared to himself, including his Sunday work, two dollars 
a week, for several weeks; and his savings on this entire 
crop of cotton, were thirty-one dollars; but he was a first- 
rate cotton picker, and worked late and early. One of 
the women cleared twenty-six dollars to herself, in the 
same way. 

We were expected to clothe ourselves with these and 
other extra earnings; but some of the people performed 
no more work through the week, than their regular task, 
and would not work constantly on Sunilay. Such were 
not able to provide themselves with good clothes, and 
many of them sufi'ered greatly from the cold, in the course 
of the winter. When the weather was mild and pleasant, 
some of the children, who were not required to go to the 
field, to do a day's work, would go out in the warmest 
part of the day, and pick a few pounds of cotton, for 
wh^h their parents received pay, and were obliged, in 
return, to find the children in bedding for the winter. 

A man can plant and cultivate more cotton plants, than 
he is afterwards able to pick the wool from, if the season 
is good, and no disaster befals the crop. Here every 
effort is made, from the commencement of the picking 
season until its close, to procure as much work as possible 
from the hands; and in spite of all that can be done, 
much cotton is lost; the people not being able to pick it 
all from the stalks, before the field is ploughed up to 
prepare the ground for the reception of the seeds of a 
new crop. In such a ease, every pound that the hands 
can be induced to pick, beyond their daily task, is a clear 
gain to the master; and slaves often leave the fields of 



CHARLES BALL. 235 

their masters, wliere the cotton is nearly all gathered, and 
the picking is poor, to go to the field of some neighboring 
planter, where -the cotton is more abundant, to work on 
Sunday. It is a matter of indifference to the slave, 
whether his master gets his cotton all picked, or not; his 
object is to get employment in a field where he can make 
the best wages. In such cases, the masters often direct the 
overseers to offer their own slaves one half as nrueh as the 
cotton is worth, for each pound they will pick on Sunday ; 
and this for the purpose of preventing them from going 
to some other field, to work on that day. 

The usual price only, is paid for extra cotton, picked on 
working days; for after a lited has picked his task, he 
would not have time to go anywhere else to work; nor, 
indeed, would not be permitted to leave his plantation. 
The slave is a kind of a freeman, on Sunday, all over the 
southern country; and it is, in truth, by the exercise of 
his liberty on this day, that he is enabled to provide him- 
self and his family with many of the necessaries of life, 
that his master refuses to supply him with. 

It is altogether impossible, to make a person residing in 
any of the Middle or Northern States of the Union, and 
who has never been in the South, thoroughly acquainted 
with all the minute particulars of the life of a slave on a 
cotton plantation, or to give him an idea of the system of 
parsimonious economy, that the slave is obliged to exercise 
and maintain in his little household. Poor as the slave 
is, and dependant at all times upon the arbitrary will of 
his master, or yet more fickle caprice of the overseer, his 
children Took up to him, in his little cabin, as their pro- 
tector and supporter. There is always in every cabin, 
except in times of scarcity, after there has been a failure 
^ of the corn crop, a sufacient supply of eitlicr corn bread 



236 THE ADVENTURES OP 

or sweet potatos; and either of these is sufficient to give 
health aud vigor to children, who are not required to do 
any work ; but a person who is grown up, and is obliged 
■ to labor hard, finds either bread or potatos, or even both 
together, quite inadequate to sustain the body in the full 
and powerful tone of muscular action, that more generous 
food would bestow. 

A mother will imagine the painful feelings experienced 
by a parent, in the cabin of a slave, when a small portion 
of animal food is procured, dressed and made ready for 
the table. The father and mother know, that it is not 
only food, but medicine to them, and their appetites 
keenly court the precious morsel; whilst the children, 
whose senses are all acute, seem to be indued with taste 
and smell in a tenfold degree, and manifest a ravenous 
craving for fresh meat, which it is painful to witness, with- 
out being able to gratify it. 

During the whole of this fall and winter, we usually 
had something to roast, at least twice a week, in our 
cabin. The roasts were racoons, opossums, and other 
game — the proceeds of my trapping. All the time the 
meat was hanging at the fire, as well as while it was on 
the table, our house was surrounded by the children of our 
fellow slaves; some begging for a piece, and all expressing 
by their eager countenances, the keen desire they felt to 
partake with us of our dainties. It was idle to think of 
sharing with them the contents of our board ; for they 
were often thirty or forty in number, and the largest 
racoon would scarcely have made a mouthful for each of 
them. There was one little boy, four years old, a very 
fine little fellow, to whom I had become warmly attached, 
and who used to share with me in all the good things I 
possessed. He was of the same age with my own little ^ 



CHARLES BALL. 237 

son, whom I had left in Maryland; and there was nothing 
that 1 possessed in the world, that I would not have diyi- 
ded with him, even to my last crust. 

It may well be supposed, that in our society, although 
we were all slaves, and all nominally in a condition of the 
most perfect equality, yet there was in fact a very great 
difference in the manner of living, in the several families. 
Indeed, I doubt whether there is as great a diversity in the 
modes of life, in the several families of any white village 
in New York, or Pennsylvania, containing a population 
of three hundred persons, as there was in the several 
households of our quarter. This may be illustrated by 
the foUowino; circumstance : — Before I came to reside in 
the family with whom I lived at this time, they seldom 
tasted animal food, or even fish, except on meat days, as 
they were called ; that is, when meat was given to the 
people by the overseer, under the orders of our master. 
The head of the family was a very quiet, worthy man ; 
but slothful and inactive in his habits. When he had 
come from the field at night, he seldom thought of leaving 
the cabin again before morning. He would and did make 
baskets and muts, and earned some money by these means; 
he also did his regular day's work on Sunday ; but all his 
acquirements were not sufiicient to enable him to provide 
any kind of meat for his family. All that his wife and 
children could do, was to provide him with work at hig 
baskets and mats; and they lived even then better than 
some of their neighbors. After I came among them, and 
had acquired some knowledge of the surrounding country, 
I made as many baskets and mats as he did, and took time 
to go twice a week to look at all my traps. 

As the winter passed away and spring approached, the 
proceeds of my hunting began to diminish. The game 

u 



238 THE ADVENTURES OF 

became scarce, and }3otli racoons and o^DOssums grew poor 
and worthless. It was necessaiy for me to discover some 
new mode of improving the allowance allotted to me by 
the overseer. I had all my life been accustomed to fish- 
ing, in Maryland, and I now resolved to resort to the 
water for a living ; the land having failed to furnish me a 
comfortable subsistence. With these views, I set out one 
Sunday morning, early in February, and went to the 
river, at the distance of three miles from home. From 
the appearance of the stream, I felt confident that it must 
contain many fish; and I went immediately to work to 
make a weir. With the help of an axe that I had with 
me, I finished, before night, the frame work of a weir of 
pine sticks, lashed together with oak splits. I had no 
canoe, but made a raft of dry logs, upon which I went to 
a suitable place in the river, and set my weir. I after- 
wards made a small net of twine, that I bought at the 
store; and on next Thursday night I took as many fish 
from my weir as filled a half bushel measure. This was 
a real treasure — it was the most fortunate circumstance 
that had happened with me since I came to the country. 

I was enabled to show my generosity; but like all man- 
kind, even in my liberality, I kept myself in mind. I 
gave a large fish to the overseer, and took three more to 
the great house. These were the first fresh fish that had 
been in the family this season; and I was much praised 
by my master and young mistresses, for my skill and 
success in fishing; But this was all the advantage I 
received from this effort to court the favor of the great : 
I did not even get a dram. The part I had performed in 
the detection of the murderers of the young lady was 
forgotten, or at least, not mentioned now. I went away 
from the house not only disappointed, but chagrined ; and 



CHARLES BALL, 239 

thought to myself, that if my master and young mistresses 
had nothing but words to give me for my fish^ we should 
not carry on a very large traffic. 

On the next Sunday morning, a black boy came from 
the house, and told me that our master wished to see me. 
This summons was not to be disobeyed. When I returned 
to the mansion, I went round to the kitchen, and sent 
word by one of the house slaves, that I had come. The 
servant returned and told me, that I was to stay in the 
kitchen and get my breakfast; and after that, to come 
into the house. 

A very good breakfast was sent to me from my master's 
table, after the family had finished their meal; and when 
I had done with my repast, I went into the parlor. I was 
receive'd with great affability by my master, who told me 
he had sent for me, to know if I had been accustomed to 
fish in the place I had come from. I informed him, that 
I had been employed at a fishery on the Patuxent, every 
spring, for several years; and that I thought I under- 
stood fishing with a seine as well as most people. He 
then asked me if I could knit a seine ; to which I replied 
in the affirmative. i 

After some other questions, he lold me, that as the 
picking of cotton was nearly over for this season, and the 
fields must soon be ploughed up for a new crop, he had a 
thought of having a seine made, and of placing me at the 
head of a fishing party, for the purpose of trying to take 
a supply of fish for his hands. No communication could 
have been more unexpected than this was; and it was 
almost as pleasing to me as it was unexpected by me. I 
now began to hope that there would be some respite from 
the labors of the cotton field, and that I should not be. 
doomed to drag out a dull and monotonous existence,' 
within the confines of the enclosures of the plantation. 



t>40 THE ADVENTURES OF 

In Marylantl; the fishing season was alwa3's one of hard 
hibor, it is true; but also a time of joy and hilarity. 
AVe then had, throughout the time of fishing, plenty of 
bread, and, at least, bacon enough to fry our fish with. 
We had also a daily allowance of whiskey or brandy; and 
we always considered ourselves fortunate when we left 
the farm to go to the fishery. 

A few days after this, I was again sent for by my mas- 
ter, who told me he had bought twine and ropes for a 
seine, and that I must set to work and knit it as Cjiuiekly 
as possible; that as he did not wish the twine to be taken 
to the quarter, I. must remain with the servants in the 
kitchen, and live with them whilst employed in construct- 
ing the seine. I was assisted in making the seine by a 
black boy, whom I had taught to work with me; tind by 
the end of two weeks we had finished our job. 

While at work on this seine, I lived rather better than 
I had formerly done, when residing at the quarter. We 
received amongst us — twelve in number, including the 
people who worked in the garden — the refuse of our mas- 
ter's table. In this way we procured a little cold meat 
every day; and when tho^e were many strangers visiting 
the famil}", we sometimes procured considerable cjuantities 
of cold and broken meats. 

My new employment aiforded me a better opportunity 
than I had hitherto possessed, of making correct observa- 
tions upon the domestic economy of my master's house- 
hold, and of learning the habits and modes of life of the 
persons who composed it. On a great cotton plantation, 
sucli as this of my master's, the field hands, who live in 
the quarter, are removed so for from the domestic circle 
of their master's family, by their servile condition and 
the nature of their employment, that they know but little 



CHARLES BALL. 241 

more of the transactions within the walls of the great 
house, than if they lived ten miles off. Many a slave hag 
been born, lived to old age, and died on a plantation, 
without ever having been within the walls of his master's 
domicil. 

My master was a widower; and his house was in charge 
of his sister, a maiden lady, apparently fifty-five or sixty. 
He had six children, three sons and three daughters, all un- 
married; but only one of the sons was at home, at the 
time I came upon the estate; the other two were in some 
of the northern cities: the one studying medicine, and the 
other at college. At the time of knitting the twine, 
these young gentlemen had returned, on a visit to their 
relations, and all the brothers and sisters were now on 
the place. The young ladies were all grown up and mar- 
riageable ; their father was known to be a man of great 
wealth; and the girls were reputed very pretty in Caro- 
lina; one of them, the second of the three, was esteemed 
a great beauty. 

The reader might deem my young mistress' pretty face 
and graceful person altogether impertinent to the narra- 
tive of my own life; but they had a most material influ- 
ence upon my fortunes, and changed the whole tenor of 
my existence. Had she been less beautiful, or of a tam- 
per less romantic and adventurous, I should still have 
been a slave in South Carolina, if yet alive, and the world 
would have been saved the labor of perusing these pages. 

Any one at all acquainted with southern manners, will at 
once see that my master's house possessed attractions, which 
would not fail to draw within it numerous visiters ; and 
that the head of such a family as dwelt under its roof 
was not likely to be without friends. 

I had not been at work upon the seine a week, before I 



1>42 THE ADVENTURES OF 

discovered, by listening to the conversation of my master, 
and the other memljers of the family, that they prided 
themselves not a little, upon the antiquity of their house, 
and the long practice of a generous hospitality to stran- 
gers, and to all respectable people who chose to visit their 
homestead. All circumstances conspired to render this 
house one of the chief seats of the fashion, the wit, and 
the gallantry of South Carolina. Scarcely an evening 
came, but it brought a carriage, and ladies and gentlemen, 
and their servants; and every day brought dashing young 
planters, mounted on horseback, to dine with the family; 
but Sunday was the day of the week on which the house 
received the greatest accession of company. 

My master and family were members of the Episcopal 
Church, and attended service every Sunday, when the 
weather was fine, at a church eight miles distant. Each 
of my young masters and mistresses had a saddle-horse, 
and in pleasant weather they frequently all went to church 
on horseback, leaving my old master and mistress to occu- 
py the family carriage alone. I have seen fifteen or 
twenty young people come to my master's for dinner, on 
Sunday, from church; and very often the parson, a young 
man of handsome appeararce, was amongst them. I had 
observed these things long before, but now I had come to 
live at the house, and become more familiar with them. 
Three Sundays intervened while I was at work upon 
the seine, and on each of these Sundays more than twenty 
persons, besides the family, dined at my master's 

During these three weeks, my young masters were 
absent far the'greater part of the time; but I observed that 
they generally came home on Sunday for dinner. My 
young mistresses were not from home much, and I believe 
they never left the plantation, unless either their father or 



CHARLES BALL. 243 

some one of their brothers was with them. Dinner partie>s 
were frequent in my master's house; and on these occa- 
sions of festivity, a black man, who belonged to a neigh- 
boring estate, and who played the violin, was sent for. I 
observed that whenever he was sent for, he came, and 
sometimes even came before night, which appeared a little 
singular to me, as I knew the dilSicult}^ that colored poeple 
had to encounter in leaving the estate to which they were 
attached. I felt curious to ascertain how it happened 
that Peter (that was the name of the fiddler,) enjoyed 
such privileges, and contrived to become acquainted with 
him, when he came to get his supper in the kitchen. 

He informed me that his master was always ready to 
let him go to a ball; and would permit him to leave the 
cotton field at any time, for that purpose, and even lend 
him a horse to ride. I afterwards learned from this man, 
that his master compelled him to give him half the money 
that he received as gratuities from the gentlemen for 
whom he played at the dinner parties; but as his master 
had enjoined him, under pain of being whipped, not to 
divulge this circumstance, I never betrayed the poor fel- 
low's confidence. Peter's master was a planter, who 
owned thirty slaves, and his children, (several of whom 
were young ladies and gentlemen,) moved in highly re- 
spectable circles of society; but I believe my master's 
family did not treat them as quite their equals ; not so 
much on account of their inferiority in point of wealth, as 
because they were new in the country, having only been 
settled here but a few years, and the master of Peter 
having, when a young man, acted as overseer on a rico 
plantation near Charleston. 



\ - 



244 THE ADVENTURES OF 

CHAPTER XV. 

I have, though always in a very humble station in life, 
travelled more, and seen more of the people in the United 
States than some who occupy elevated ranks, and claim 
for themselves a knowledge of the world far greater than 
I pretend to possess ; hut a man's knowledge is to be val- 
ued, not by that which he has imagined, but by that 
which experience has taught hira; and in estimating his 
ability to give information to others, we are to judge him, 
not by what he says he would wish men, and the world to 
be, but by what he has seen, and by the just inferences he 
draws from those actions, that he has witnessed in the 
vai'ious conditions of human society, that have passed in 
review before him. In this book, I do not pretend to dis- 
cuss systems, or advance theories. I am content to give 
facts, as I saw them. 

In the Northern and Middle States, so far as I have 
known them, very little respect is paid to family preten- 
sions ; and this disregard of ancestry, seems to me, to be 
the necessary oflf-spring of the condition of things. In 
the States of New York and Pennsylvania, there are so 
many ways by which men may, and do arrive at distinc- 
tion, and so many, and such various means of acquiring 
wealth, that all claim of superiority on account of the 
possession of any particular kind of property, is prohibi- 
ted by public opinion. A great land holder is counterbal- 
anced by a great manufacturer, and perhaps surpassed by 
a great merchant, whilst a successful and skillful mechanic 
is the rival of all these. Family distinction can obtain no 
place amongst these men. In the plantation States, the 
case is widely different. There, lands and slaves consti- 



CHARLEr5 BALL. 245 

tute the only properly of the country, that is worthy of 
being taken into an estimate of public wealth. Cattle, 
and horses, togs, sheep and mules, exist, but in numbers 
so few, and of qualities so inferior, that the portion of 
them, possessed by any individual planter, would compose 
an aggregate value of suffieieiit magnitude only, to raise 
him barely beyond the lines that divide poverty from me- 
diocrity of condition. 

The mechanic is a sort of journeyman to the planters, 
and works about the country as he may chance to find a 
job, in^building a house, erecting a cotton gin, or con- 
structing a horse mill, if he is a carpenter or mill-wright; 
if he is a tailor, he seeks employment from house to 
house, never remaining longer in one place than to allow 
himself time to do the work of the family. The mechanic 
holds a kind of half way rank, between the gentleman 
and the slave. He is not, and never can be, a gentleman, 
for the reason that he does, and must do his own work. 
Hence, mechanics and artisans of every description avoid 
the southern country; or if they are found there, they 
are only sojourners. The country they are in is not their 
home; they are there from necessity; or with a hope of 
acquiring money to establish themselves in business, in 
places where their occupations are held more in honor. 
Manufacturers are not in existence in the cotton country; 
therefore no comparison can be instituted between them 
and the planters. 

I believe, from what I saw, that all the commerce of 
the cotton country is in the hands of strangers, and that 
a large portion of these strangers are foreigners. The 
planters deal with them from necessity, as they must 
have such things as they need, and must obtain them 
somewhere, and from somebody. The storekeeper lives 



246 THE ADVENTURES OF 

as well^ dresses as well, and often lives in as good a house 
as the planter — perhaps in one that is better than that of 
the planter ; hut his wealth is not so material ; his means 
of subsistence do not strike the eye so powerfully as a 
hundred field hands, and three hundred acres of cotton. 
The country has no hold on him, and he has no hold on 
the country. His habits of life are not similar to those 
of his neighbors — he is not "one of us.'^ 

All the families who yisited at my master's, were 
those of planters ; and the families of the cotton planters 
have nothing to do but to visit, or read, hunt, or fish, or 
run into seme vicious amusements, or sit down and do 
nothing. Every kind of labor is as strictly prohibited to 
the sons and daughters of the planters, by universal cus- 
tom, as if a law of the land made it punishment by fine 
and imprisonment, and gave one half of the fine to a coin- 
mon informer. The only line that divides the gentleman 
from the simple man, is that the latter works for his liv- 
ing, whilst the former has slaves to work for him. No 
man who works with his hands, can or will be received 
into the highest orders of society, on a footing of equality; 
nor oan he hope to see his family treated better than him- 
self. This unhappy fiat of p ublic opinion has done infin- 
ite mischief in the South. 

Men of fortune will not work, nor permit their sons to 
work in the field, because this exemption from labor is 
their badge of gentility, and the circumstance that dis- 
tinguishes them from the less favored members of the 
community. As the wealthy, the great, and the fashion, 
able are never seen at labor, and as it is known that they 
hold it to be beneath the rank of a gentleman to work in 
the field, tliose who are more strongly endowed with the 
advantages of fortune, imbibe an opinion that it is dis- 



CHARLES BALL. 24T 

graceful to plough, or to dig, and that it is necessary to 
lead a life of idleness, to maintain their caste in society. 
No man works in South Carolina, except under the 
impulse of necessity. In this state of things, many men 
of limited fortunes rear up families of children without 
education, and without the means of supporting an ex- 
pensive style of living. The sons when grown up, of 
necessity, commingle with the other young people of the 
country; and bring with them into the affairs of the 
world, nothing upon which they can pride themselves, 
except that they are white men, and are not obliged to 
work for a living. 

This false pride has infected the whole mass of the 
white population; and the young man, whose father has 
half a dozen children, and an equal number of slaves, 
looks with affected disdain upon the son of his father's 
neighbor, who owns no slaves, because the son of the non- 
slaveholder, must work for his bread, whilst the son of 
the master of half a dozen negroes, contrives to support 
himself in a sort of lazy poverty, only one remove from 
actual penury. 

Every man who is able to procure a subsistence, without 
labor, regards himself a gentleman, from this circumstance 
alone, if he has nothing else to sustain his pretensions. 
These poor gentlemen, are the worst members of society ; 
and the least productive of benefit, either to themselves or 
their country. They are prone to horse-racing, cock- 
fighting, gambling, and all sorts of vices common to the 
country. Having no livelihood, and being engaged in no 
pursuit, they hope to distinguish themselves, by running 
to excess in what they call fashionable amusements, or 
sporting exercises. These people are universally detested 
by the slaves, and are indeed, far more tyrannical than 



248 THE ADVENTURES OF 

the great slaveholders themselves, or any other portion of 
the white population, the overseers excepted. 

A man who is master of only four or five slaves, is gen- 
erally the most ready of all, to apprehend a black man, 
whom he may happen to catch straying from his planta- 
tion ; and generally whips him the most unmercifully for 
this offence. The law gives him the same authority to 
arrest the person of a slave, seen travelling without his 
pass, that it vests in the owner ot five hundred negroes ; 
and the experience of all ages, that petty tyrants arc the 
most oppressive, seems fully verified in the cotton country. 

A person who has not been in the slave holding States, 
can never fully understand the bonds that hold society 
togeth3r there; or appreciate the rules which prescribe 
the boundaries of the pretensions of the several orders of 
men, who compose the body politic of those communities; 
and after all that I have written, and all that I shall 
write, in this book, the reader who has never resided 
South of the Potomac, will never be able to perceivfe 
things, precisely as they present themselves to my vision, 
or to comprehend the spirit that prevails in a couutrj^, 
where the population is divided into three separate classes. 
Those will fall into great error, who shall imagine, that in 
Carolina and Georgia, there are but two orders of men ; 
and that the artificial distinctions of society have only 
classified the people into white and black, free men and 
slaves. It is true, that the distinctions of color are the 
most obvious, and present themselves more readily than 
any others, to the inspection of a stranger ; but he who 
will take time to examine into the fundamental organiza- 
tion of society, in the cotton planting region, will easily 
discover that there is a third order of men located there, 
little known to the world, but who, nevertheless, hold a 



CHARLES BALL. 249 

separate stxition, occupying a place of their own, and ^ho 
do not come into direct contrast with either the master or 
the slave. 

The white man, who has no property, no poeeession, 
and no education, is, in Carolina, in a condition no better^ 
than that to which the slave has been reduced ; except, 
only, that he is master of his own person, and of his own 
time, and may, if he chooses, emigrate and i ransfer him- 
self to a country where he can better his circumstances, 
whilst the slave is bound, by invisible chains, to the plan- 
tation on which his master may think proper to place him. 

In my opinion, there is no ordeji of men in any part of 
the United States, with which I have any acquaintance, 
who are in a more debased and humiliated state of moral 
servitude, than are those white people, who inhabit that 
part of the southern country, where the landed property 
is all, or nearly all, held by the great planters. Many of 
these white people live in wretched cabins, not half so 
good as the houses which precautious planters provide for 
their slaves. Some of these cabins of the white men, are 
made of mere sticks, or small poles notched, or rather 
thatched together, and filled in with mud, mixed with the 
leaves, or strats, as they are termed, of the pine tree. 
Some fix their residence far in the pine forest, and gain a 
scanty subsistence, by notching the trees and gathering 
the turpentine; others are seated upon some poor and 
worthless point of land, near the margin of a river, or 
creek, and draw a precarious livelihood from the water 
and the badly cultivated garden that surrounds, or adjoins 
the dwelling. 

These people do not occupy the place held in the North, 
by the respectable and useful class of day laborers, who 
constitute so considerable a portion of the numerical pop- 
ulation of the count^-v. 
\ 



250 THE ADVENTURES OF 

Tu the South, these white cottagers are never employed 
to work on the plantations for wages. Two things forbid 
this. The white man, however poor and necessitous he 
may he, is too proud to go to work in the same field with 
the negro slaves by his side ; and the owner of the slaves 
is not willing to permit wliite men, of the lowest order, 
to come amongst them, lest the morals of the negroes 
should be corrupted, and illicit traffic should be carried 
on, to the detriment of the master. 

The slaves generally believe, that however miserable 
they may be, in their servile station, it is nevertheless 
preferable to the degraded existence of these poor white 
people. This sentiment is cherished by the slaves, and 
encouraged by their masters, who fancy that they subserve 
their own interest in promoting an opinion amongst tho 
negroes, that they are better oflf in the world, than are 
many white persons, who are free, and have to submit to 
the burthen of taking care of, and providing for them- 
selves. 

I never could learn, or understand, how, or by what 
means, these poor cottagers came to be settled in Carolina. 
They are a separate and distinct race of men, from the" 
planters; and appear to have nothing in common with 
them. If it were possible for any people to occupy a 
grade in human society, below that of the slaves on the 
cotton plantations, certainly the station would be filled by 
these white families, who cannot be said to possess any 
thing in the shape of property. The contempt in which 
they are held, and the contumely with which they arc 
treated, by the great planters, to be comprehended, must 
]ye seen. 

These observations are applicable in their fullest extent, 
caily to the lower parts of Georgia and Carolina^ and to 



CHARLES BALL, 251 

couiitij placed. lu the upper country, wliere alave;s aix» 
not so numerous, and wliere less of cotton, and more of 
grain is cultivated, there is not so great a difference 
between the white man, who holds slaves and a plantation? 
and another white man who has neither slaves nor planta- 
tion. In the towns, also, more especially in Charleston 
and Savannah, where the number of white mea who hav« 
no slaves, is very great, they are able from their very 
numbers, to constitute a moral force, sufficiently powerful 
to give them some degree of weight in the community. 

I shall now return to my narrative. Early in March, 
or perhaps on one of the last days of February, my seine 
being now completed-, my master told me I must take with 
me, three other black men, and go to the river to clear 
out a fishery. This task of clearing out a fishery,, was a 
very disagreeable job; for is was nothing less than drag- 
ging out of tlie river, ail the old trees and brush that had 
«unk to the bottom, within the limits of our intended fish_ 
Mag grou3id. My master's eldest son had been down the 
river, and had purchrsed two feoats^ to be used at tiac fish- 
ery ; but when I saw them, I declared them to he totally 
unfit for the purpose. They were old batteaux, and so 
leaky that they would not have supported the weight of a 
wet seine, and the men necessary to lay it out. I advised 
the building of two good canoes, from some of the large 
jellow pines in the woods. My advice was accepted, and 
together witk five other hands, I went to woa'ik ai tihe 
canoes, which we completed in less than a week. 

So far, things went pretty well, and I flattered myself 
tliat I should become the head man at this new fishery, 
and have the command of the other hands. I also expec- 
ted, that I should be able to gain some advantage to 
myself, by disposing of a part of the small fish, that 



252 THE ADVENTURES OF 

might be taken at the fishery. I reckoned without my 
host. 

My master had only purchased this place, a short time 
before he bought me. Before that time, he did not own 
any place on the riyer, fit for the establishment of a fish- 
ery. His lands adjoined the river for more than a mile 
in extent, along its margin; but an impassable morass 
separated the channel of the river from the firm ground, 
all along his lines. He had cleared the highest parts of 
this morass, or swamp, and had here made his rice fields ; 
but he was as entirely cut off from the river, as if an ocean 
had separated it from him. 

On the day that we launched the canoes into the river, 
and while we were engaged in removing some snags, and 
old trees that had stuck in the mud, near the shore, an ill- 
looking stranger came to us, and told us that our master 
had sent him to take charge of the fishery, and superin- 
tend all the work that was to be done at it. This man, 
by his contract with my master, was to receive a part of 
all the fish caught, in lieu of wages ; and was invested 
with the same authority over us, that was exercised by 
the overseer in the cotton field. 

I soon found that I had cause to regret my removal 
from the 2>lantation. It was found quite impossible to 
remove the old logs, and other rubbish from the bottom 
of the river, without going into the water, and wrenching 
them from their places with long hand-spikes. In per- 
forming this work, we were obliged to wade up to our 
shoulders, and often to dip our very heads under water, in 
raising the sunken timber. However, within less than a 
week, we had cleared the ground, and now began to haul 
our seine. At first, we caught nothing but common river 
fish ; but after two or three days, we began to take shad. 



CHARLES BALL. 253 

Of the common fish, such as pike, perch, suckers and 
others, we had the liberty of keeping as many as we could 
eat ; but the misfortune was, that wo had no pork, or fat 
of any kind to fry them with ; and for several days wo 
contented ourselves with broiling them on the coals, and 
eating them with our corn bread and sweet potatos. We 
could have lived well, if we had been permitted to broil 
the shad on the coals, and eat them ; for a fat shad will 
dress itself in being broiled, and is very good, without any 
oily substance added to it. 

All the shad that we caught, were carefully taken away 
by a black man, who came three times every day to the 
fishery, with a cart. 

The master of the fishery, had a family that lived sev- 
eral miles up the river. In the summer time, he fished 
with hooks, and small nets, when not engaged in running 
turpentine, in the pine woods. In the winter, he went 
back into the pine forest, and made tar of the dead pine 
trees ; but returned to the river at the opening of the 
spring, to take advantage of the shad fishery. He was 
supposed to be one of the most skilful fisherman on tho 
Cangaree river, and my master employed him to superin- 
tend his new fishery, under an expectation, I presume, 
that as he was to get a tenth part of all the fish that 
might be caught, he would make the most of his situation. 
My master had not calculated with accuracy the force of 
habit, nor the difficulty which men experience, in conduct- 
ing very simple afi"airs, with which they have no practical 
knowledge. 

The fish- master did very well, for the interest of his 
employer, for a few days; compelling us to work, in 
hauling the seine, night and day, and scarcely permitted 
us to take rest enough to obtain noces.^ary sleep. TTw 



254 THE ADVENTURES OF 

were compelled to work full sixteen hours every day, in* 
eluding Sunday ; for in the fishing season, no respect is 
paid to Sunday, by fishermen, any where. We had our 
usual quantity of bread and potatos, with plenty of com- 
mon fish; but no shad came to our lot; nor had we any 
thing to fry our fish with. A broiled fresh-water fish is 
not very good, at best, without salt or oil ; and after we 
had eaten them every day, for a week, we cared very little 
for them. 

B^ tills time, our fish-majstor began to relax in his dis- 
cipline ; not that he became more kind to us, or required 
MS to do less work ; but to compel us to work all night, it 
was necessary for him to sit up all night and watch us 
This was a degree of toil and privation to which he could 
not long submit ; and one evening, soon after dark, he 
called, me to him, and told me that he intended to make 
me overseer of the fishery that night; and he had no 
doubt, I would keep the hands at work, and attend to the 
business as well without him as with him. He then went 
into his cabin, and went to bed ; whilst I went and laid 
out the seine, and made a very good haul. We took more 
than two hundred shad at this draught, and followed up 
our work with great industry all night, only taking time 
to eat our accustomed meal at midnight. 

Every fisherman knows that the night is the best time 
for taking shad; and the little rest that had been allowed 
us, since we began to fish, had always been from eight 
o'clock in the morning, until four in the afternoon; unless 
within that period there was an appearance of a shoal of 
fish in the river, when we had to rise and lay out the 
seine, no matter at what hour of the day. The fish-master 
had been very severe with the hands, since he came 
»rnongst us; and had made very free use of a long hickory 



CHARLES BALL. 255 

gad that lie sometimes carried about 'with him ; though 
fiometimes he would relax his austerity, and talk quite 
familiarly with us ; especially with me, whom he pereeiy- 
ed to have some knowledge of the business in wliich we 
wore engaged. The truth was, that this man knew noth- 
iag of fishing with a seine, and I had been obliged from 
tlie beginning, to direct the operations of laying out and 
(h-awing in the seine; though the master was always yery 
loud and boisterous in giving his commands, and directing 
u^ in what part of the river we should let down the seine. 
Having never been accustomed to regular work, or to 
the pursuit of any constant course of personal application, 
the master was incapable of long continued exertion; and 
1 feel certain, that he could not have been prevailed upon 
to labor twelve hours each day, for a year, if in return he 
had been certain of receiving ten thousand dollars. Not- 
withstanding this, he was capable of rousing himself, and 
of undergoing any degree of fatigue or privation, for a 
short time ; even for a few days. He had not been train- 
ed to habits of industry, and could not bear the restraints 
of uniform labor. 

We worked hard all night, the first night of my super- 
intendence, and when the sun rose the next morning, the 
master had not risen from his bed. As it was now the 
usual time of dividing the fish, I called to him to come 
and see this business fairly done ; but, as he did not come 
down immediately to the landing, I proceeded to make the 
division myself, in as equitable a manner as I could ; giv- 
ing, however, a full share of large fish to the master. 
When he came down to us, and overlooked both the piles 
of fish — his own and that of my master — he was so well 
satisfied with what T had done, that he said, if he had 
known that I would do so well for him, he would not have 



256 THE ADVENTURES OF 

risen. I was glad to hear this, as it led me to hope, that 
I should be able to induce him to stay in his cabin during 
the greater part of the time; to do which, I was well as- 
sured, he felt disposed. 

When the night came, the master again told me he 
should go to bed, not being well ; and desired me to do as 
I had done the night before. This night we cooked as 
many shad as we could all eat ; but were careful to carry, 
far out into the river, the scales and entrails of the stolen 
fish. In the morning, I made a division of the fish before 
I called the master, and then went and asked him to come 
and see what I had done. He was again well pleased, 
and now proposed to us all, that if we would not let the 
afi'air be known to our master, he would leave us to man- 
age the fishery at night, according to our discretion. To 
this proposal we all readily agreed, and I received au- 
thority to keep the other hands at work, until the master 
would go and get his breakfast. I had now accomplished 
the object that I had held very near my heait, ever since 
we began to fish at this place. 

From this time, to the end of the fishing season, we 
all lived w-ell, and did not perform more work than we 
were able to bear. I was in no fear of being punished by 
the fish-master ; for he was now at least as much in my 
power, as I was in his ; for if my master had known the 
agreement, that he had made with us, for the purpose of 
enabling himself to sloop all night in his cabin, he would 
have been deprived of his situation, and all the profits of i 
his share of the fishery. 

There never can be any afiinity of feeling between mas- 
ter and slave, except in some few isolated cases, where the 
master has treated his slave in such a manner, as to have 
excited in him, strong feelings of gratitude ; or whore the 



CHARLES BALL. 257 

nhve entertains apprehensions, that hy the death of his 
master, or by being separated from him in any other way, 
he may fall under the power of a more tyrannical ruler, 
or may in some shape be worsted by the change. I was 
never acquainted with a slave, who believed that he viola- 
ted any rule of morality, by appropriating to himself any 
thin"g that belonged to his master, if it was necessary to 
his comfort. The master might call it theft, and brand it 
with the name of crime; but the slave reasoned differently 
when he took a portion of his master's goods, to satisfy 
his hunger, keep himself warm, or to gratify his passion 
for luxurious enjoyment. 

The slave sees his master residing in a spacious mansion, 
riding in a fine carriage, and dressed in costly clothes, and 
attributes the possession of all these enjoyments to his 
own labor ', whilst he who is the cause of so much gratifi- 
cation and pleasure to another, is himself deprived of 
even the necessary accommodations of human life. Igno- 
rant men do not, and cannot reason logically ; and in tra- 
cino- things from cause to effect, the slave attributes all 
that he sees in possession of his master to his own toil, 
without taking the trouble to examine how far the skilly 
judgment and economy of his master, may have contribu- 
ted to the accumulation of the wealth by which his resi- 
dence is surrounded. There is in fact, a mutual depend- 
ence between the master and his slave. The former could 
not acquire any thing, without the labor of the latter, and 
the latter would always remain in poverty, without the 
judgment of the former, in directing labor to a definite 
and profitable result. 

After I had obtained the virtual command of the fish- 
ery, I was careful to awaken the master every morning at 
sunrise, that he might be present when the division of the 



2oS THE ADVENTURES OF 

fish was made; and when the morning cart arrived, that, 
the carter might not report to my master, that the fish- 
master was in bed. I had now become interested in pre- 
serving the good opinion of my master in favor of his- 
agent. 

Since my arrival in Carolina, I had never enjoyed a full 
meal of bacon; and now determined, if possible^ to -pro- 
cure such a supply of that luxury, as would enable me, 
and all my fellow slaves at the fishery, to regale ourselves 
at pleasure. At this season of the year, boats frequently 
passed up the river, laden with merchandise and goods of 
various kinds, amongst which, was generally large quanti- 
ties of salt, intended for curing fish, and for other purpo- 
ses on the plantations. These boats also carried bacon 
and salted pork up the river, for sale ; but as they never 
moved at night, confining their navigation to day-light, 
and as none of them had hitherto stopped near our land- 
ing, we had not met with an opportunity of entering into 
a traffic with any of the boat masters. We were not 
always to be so unfortunate. One evening in the second 
week of the fishing season, a large keel-boat was seen 
working up the river about sun down; and shortly after, 
came to for the night, on the opposite side of the river, 
directl;y against our landing. We had, at the fishery, a 
small canoe called a punt, about twelve feet long; and 
when we went to lay out the seine, for the first haul after 
night, I attached the punt to the side of the canoe, and 
when we had finished letting down the scino, I left the 
other hands to work it toward the shore, and ran over in 
the punt to the kefel-boat. Upon inquiring of the captain 
if he had any bacon that he would exchange for shad-, ht 
said, he had a little ; but as I knew the risk he would run 
ia dealing with a slave, I must expect io pay him more 



CHARLES UALL, 259 

than the usual price. He at length proposed to giVe me 
a hundred pounds of bacon for three hundred shad. Thi^ 
was at least twice as much as the bacon was worth; but 
we did not bargain as men generally do, where half of the 
bargain is on each side ; for here, the captain of the :keel- 
boat settled the terms for both parties. However, be ran 
the hazzard of being prosecuted for dealing with slaves 
which is a very high offence in Carolina; and I was sell- 
ing that, which in point of law, did not belong to me; 
but to which, nevertheless, I felt in my conscience that I 
had a better right than any other person. In support of 
the right, which I felt to be on my side in this case, came 
a keen appetite for the bacon, which settled the contro- 
versy, upon the question of the morality of this traffic, m 
my favor. It so happened, that we made a good haul 
with our seine, this evening, and at the time I returned 
to the landing, the men were all on shore, engaged in 
drawing in the seine. As soon as we had taken out the 
fish, we placed three hundred of them in one of our 
canoes, and pushed over to the keel-boat, where the fish 
were counted oiit, and the bacon was received into our 
craft with all possible despatch. One part of this small 
trade exhibited a trait of human character which I think 
worthy of being noticed. The captain of the boat was a 
middle-aged, thin, sallow man, with long bushy hair, and 
he looked like one who valued the opinions of men but 
little. I expected that he would not be scrupulous in 
giving me my full hundred pounds of bacon ; but in this 
I was mistaken ; for he weighed the flitches with great 
exactness, in a pair of large steelyards,^rnd gave me good 
weight. When the business was ended, and the bacon in 
my canoe, he told me, he hoped I was satisfied with him ; 
and assured me, that I should find the bacon excellent. 



260 THE ADVENTURES OP 

When I was about pushing from his boat, he iohl me in a 
low voice, though there was no one who could hear us, 
except his own people — that he should be down the river 
again in about two weeks, when ho should be very glad to 
buy any produce that I had for sale; adding, ^^I will give 
you half as much for cotton^ as it is worth in Charleston, 
and pay you either in money or groceries, as you may 
choose. Take care, and do not betray yourself, and I 
shall be honest with you." 

I was so much rejoiced, at being in possession of a hun- 
dred pounds of good flitch bacon, that I had no room in 
cither my head or my heart, for the consideration of this 
man's notions of honesty, at the present time; but paddled 
with all strength for our landing, where we took the 
bacon from the canoe, stowed it away in an old salt barrel 
and safely deposited it in a hole, dug for the purpose in 
the floor of my cabin. 

About this time, our allowance of sweet potatoes was 
withheld from us altogether, in consequence of the high 
price paid for this article, by the captains of the keel- 
boats; for the purpose, as I heard, of sending them 
to New York and Philadelphia. Ever since Christmas, 
we had been permitted to draw, on each Sunday evening, 
either a peck of corn, as usual, or half a peck of corn and 
half a bushel of sweet potatos, at our discretion. The 
half a peck of corn and the half a bushel of potatos, was 
worth much more than a peck of corn; but potatos were 
BO abundant this year, that they were of little value, and 
the saving of corn was an object worth attending to by a 
large planter. Tfite boatmen now offered half a dollar for 
a bushel of potatos, and we were again restricted to our 
corn ration. 

Notwithstanding the privation of our potatos, we at the 



CHARLES BALL. 261 

fishery lived sumptuously; although our master certainly 
believed that our fare consisted of corn bread and river 
fish, cooked without lard or butter. It was necessary to 
be exceedingly cautious in the use of our bacon; and to 
prevent the suspicions of the master and others, who fre- 
quented our landing, I enjoined our people never to fry 
any of the meat, but to boil it all. No one can smell 
boiled bacon far; but fried flitch can be smelled a mile, 
by a good nose. 

We had two meals every night, one of bacon and the 
other of fried shad; which nearly deprived us of all ap- 
petite for the breakfasts and dinners that we prepared in 
the daytime, consisting of cold corn bread without salt, 
and broiled fresh water fish, without any sort of seasoning ', 
We spent more than two weeks in this happy mode of life, 
unmolested by our master, his son, or the master of tho 
fishery ; except when the latter complained, rather than 
threatened us, because we sometimes sufi'ered our seine to 
float too far down the river, and get entangled amongst 
some roots and brush that lay on the bottom, immediately 
below our fishing ground. We now expected, every even- 
ing, to see the return of the boatman who had sold us the 
bacon ; and the man who was with me in the canoe at the 
time we received it, had not forgotten the invitation of 
the captain to trade with him in cotton on his return. 
My fellow slave was a native of Virginia, as he told me, 
and had been sold and brought to Carolina about ten 
years before this time. He was a good natured, kind- 
hearted man, and did many acts of benevolence to me, 
such as one slave is able to perform for another, and I felt 
a real afi"ection for him ; but he had adopted the too com- 
mon rule of moral action, that there is no harm in a slave 
robbing his master. 
W 



262 THE ADVENTURES OF 

The reader may suppose, from my account of the bacon , 
that I too had adopted this rule as a part of my creed; 
but I solemnly declare that this was not the case, and that 
I never deprived any one of all the masters that I have 
served, of anything against his consent, unless it was 
some kind of food; and that of all I ever took, I am 
confident, I have given away more than half to my fellow 
slaves, whom I knew to be equally needy with myself. 

The man who had been with me at the keel-boat, told 
me one day, that he had laid a plan by which we could 
get thirty or forty dollars, if I would join him in the exe- 
cution of his project. Thirty or forty dollars was a large 
sum of money to me; I had never possessed so much 
money at one time in my life; and I told him that I was 
willing to do anything by which we could obtain such a 
treasure. He then told me that he knew where the mule 
and cart that were used by the man that carried away our 
fish, were kept at night; and that he intended to set out, 
on the first dark night, harness the mule to the cart, go 
to the cotton-gin house, put two bags of cotton into the 
cart, bring them to a thicket of small pines that grew on 
the river bank, a short distance below the fishery, and 
leave them there until the keel-boat should return. All 
that he desired of me was, to make some excuse for his 
absence, to the other hands, and assist him to get his 
cotton into the canoe, at the coming of the boat, 

1 disliked the whole scheme, both on account of its 
iniquity, and of the danger which attended it; but my 
companion was not to be discouraged by all the arguments 
which I could use against it; and said, if I would not par- 
ticipate in it, he was determined to undertake it alone, 
provided I would not inform against him. To this I said 
nothing; but he had so often heard me express my detes- 



CHARLES BALL 263 

tation of one &lave betraying another, that I presume he 
felt easy on that score. The next night hut one after 
this conversation was very dark ; and when we went to 
lay out our seine after night, Nero was missing. The 
other people inquired of me if I knew where he was, and 
when I replied in the negative, little more was said on 
the subject; it being common for slaves to absent them- 
selves from their habitations at night, and if the matter 
is not discovered by the overseer or master, nothingv^is ever 
said of it by the slaves. The other people supposed, that 
in this instance, Nero had gone to see a woman whom he 
lived with as his wife, on a plantation a few miles down 
the river; and were willing to work a little harder, to 
permit him to enjoy the pleasure of seeing bis family. 
He returned before day, and said he had been to see his 
wife, which satisfied the curiosity of our companions. 

The very next evening after Nero's absence, the keel- 
boat descended the river, came down on our side, hailed 
us at the fishery, and drawing in to the shore below our 
landing, made her ropes fast among the young pines of 
which I have spoken above. After we made our first haul 
I missed Nero; but he returned to us before we had laid 
out the seine, and told us he had been in the woods to 
collect some lujlit-wood — dry resinous pine — which he 
brought on his shoulder. 

When the morning came, the keel-boat was gone, and 
everything wore the ordinary aspect about our fishery ; but 
when the man came with the mule and the cart, to take 
away the fish, he told us that there was great trouble on 
the plantation. The overseer had discovered that some 
one had stolen two bags of cotton the last night, and all 
the hands were undergoing an examination on the subject. 
The slaves on the plantation, one and all, denied having 



264 THE ADVENTURES OF, 



any knowledge of the matter, and, as there was no evi- 
dence against any one, the overseer threatened, at the 
time he left the quarter, to whip every hand on the estate, 
for the purpose of making them discover who the thief 
was. 

The slaves on the plantation differed in opinion as to 
the perpetrator of this theft; but the greater number 
concurred in charging it upon a free negro man, named 
Ishmael, who lived in a place called the White Oak 
"Woods, and followed making ploughs and harrow frames. 
He al&o made handles for hoes, and the frame work of 
cart bodies. 

This man was generally reputed, a thief, for a great 
distance round the country, and the black people charged 
him with stealing the cotton, upon no other evidence than 
his general bad character. The overseer, on the other 
hand, expressed his opinion without hesitation, which was, 
that the cotton had been stolen by some of the people of 
the plantation, and sold to a poor white man, who resided 
at the distance of three miles back in the pine woods, and 
was believed to have dealt with slaves, as a receiver of 
their stolen goods, for many year.'?. 

This white man was one of the class of poor cottagers, 
to whom I have heretofore referred in this narrative. 
The house, or cabin, in which he resided, was built of 
small polos of the yellow pine, vrith the bark remaining 
on them; the roof was of clap-boards of pine, and the 
chimney was made of sticks and mud, raised to the height 
of eight or ten feet. The api:)earance of the man and 
his wife was such as one might expect to find in such a 
dwelling. The lowest poverty had, through life, heen the 
companion of these poor people, of which their clayey 
complexions, haggard figures, and tattered garments, gave 



CHARLES BALL. 265 

the strongest proof. It appeared to me, that the state of 
destitution in which these people lived, afforded very con- 
vincing evidence that they were not in possession of the 
proceeds of the stolen goods of any person. I had often 
been at the cabin of this man, in my trapping expeditions, 
the previous autumn and winter; and I believe that the 
overseer regarded the circumstance, that black people often 
called at his house, as conclusive evidence that he held 
criminal intercourse with them. However this might be, 
the overseer determined to search the premises of this 
harmless forester, whom he resolved, beforehand, to treat 
as a guilty man. 

It being known that I was acquainted with the woods, 
in the neighborhood of the cabin, I was sent for, to leave 
the fishery, and come to assist in making search for the 
lost bags of cotton; perhaps it was also believed that I 
was in the secrets of the suspected house. It was not 
thought prudent to trust any of the hands on the planta- 
tion in making the intended search, as they were consid- 
ered the principal thieves; whilst we of the fishery, against 
whom no suspicion had arisen, were required to give our 
assistance, in ferreting out the perpetrators of an offence 
of the highest grade that can be committed by a slave on 
a cotton estate. 

Before leaving the fishery, I advised the master to be 
very careful not to let the overseer, or my master know 
that he had left us to manage the fishery at night, by 
ourselves; since, as a theft had been committed, it might 
possibly be charged upon him, if it were known that he 
had allowed us so much liberty. I said this to put the 
master on his guard against surprise, and to prevent him 
from saying anything that might turn the attention of the 
overseer to the hands at the fishery; for I knew that if 

w* 



2C6 TIIi3 ADVENTURES OF 

puniahment were to fall amongst usj it would be quite as 
likely to reach the innocent as the guilty; besideS; though 
I was innocent of the bags of cotton, I was guilty of the 
bacon ; and howcTcr I might make distinctions between 
the moral turpitude of the two cases, I knew that if dis- 
covered, they would both be treated alike. 

When I arrived at the quarter, whither I repaired in 
obedience to the orders I received, I found the overseer, 
with my master's eldest son, and a young white man, who 
liad been employed to repair the cotton-gin, waiting for 
me. I observed when I came near the overseer, he looked 
at me very attentively, and afterwads called my young 
master^' aside, and spoke to him in a tone of voice too 
low to be heard by me. The white gentlemen then 
mounted their horses, and set off by the road, for the cabin 
of the white man. I had orders to take a short route, 
through the woods and across a swamp, by which I could 
reach the cabin as soon as the overseer. 

The attentive examination that the overseer had o;iven 
me, caused me to feci uneasy, although I could not divine 
the cause of his scrutiny, nor of the subject of the short 
conversation between him and my young master. By 
travelling at a rapid pace, I arrived at the cabin of the 
suspected man before the gentlemen, but thought it pru- 
d nt not to approach it before they came up, lest' it 
might be imagined that I had gone in to give infor- 
mation to the occupants of the danger that threatened 
them. 

Here I had a hard struggle with my conscience, which 
seemed to say to me, that I ought at once to disclose all 
I knew concerning the lost bags of cotton, for the purpose 
of saving these poor people from the terror that they 
must necessarily feel at the sight of those who were coming 



CHARLES BALL. 267 

to accuse them of a great crime, perhaps from all the 
tifflictions and sufferings attendant upon a prosecution in 
a court of justice. These reflections were cut short by 
the arrival of the party of gentlemen, who passed me 
where I sat, a the side of the path, with no other notice 
than a simple command of the overseer to come on. I 
followed them into the cabin, where we found the man 
and his wife, with two little children, eating roasted po- 
tatos. 

The overseer saluted this family by telling them that 
we had come to search the house for stolen cotton. That 
it was well known that he had long been dealing with 
negros, and that they were now determined to bring him 
to punishment. I was then ordered to tear up the floor 
of the cabin, whilst the overseer mounted into the loft. 
I found nothing under the floor, and the overseer had no 
better success above. The wife was then advised to con- 
fess where her husband had concealed the cotton, to save 
herself from being brought in as a party to the affair; 
but this poor woman protested with tears that they were 
totally ignorant of the whole matter. Whilst the wife 
was interrogated the father stood without his own door, 
trembling with fear, but as I could perceive, indignant 
with rage. 

The overseer, who was fluent in the use of profane 
language, exerted the highest degree of his vulgar elo- 
quence upon these harmless people, whose only crime was 
their poverty, and whose weakness alone had invited the 
ruthless aggression of their powerful and rich neighbors. 

Finding nothing in the house, the gentlemen set out to 
scour the woods around the cabin, and commanded me to 
take the lead in tracing out tree tops and thickets, where 
it was most likely that^the stolen cotton pight be found. 



2G8 THE ADVENTURES OF 

Our searcli was in vain, as I knew it would be beforehand; 
but when weary of ranging in the woods^ the gentlemen 
again returned to the cabin, which we now found without 
inhabitants. The alarm caused by our visit, and the man- 
ner in which the gentlemen had treated this lonely family, 
had caused them to abandon their dwelling and seek safety 
in flight. The door of the house was closed, and fast- 
ened with a string to a nail in the post of the door. After 
calling several times for the fugitives, and receiving no 
answer, the door was kicked open by my young master; 
the few articles of miserable furniture that the cabin con- 
tained, including a bed made of flags, were thrown into a 
heap in the corner, and fire was set to the dwelling by 
tlj>e overseer. 

We remained until the fire had reached the roof of the 
cabin, when the gentlemen mounted their horses and set 
off for home, ordering me to return j^by the way that I 
had come. When we again reached the house of my 
master, several gentlemen of the neighborhood had as- 
sembled, drawn together by the common interest that is 
felt amongst the planters to punish theft, and particularly 
a theft of cotton in the bag. My young master related 
to his neighbors, with great apparent satisfaction, the 
exploits of the morning; said he had routed one receiver of 
stolen goods out of the country, and that all others of his 
character ought to be dealt with in the same manner. 

I this opinion all the gentlemen present concurred, and 
after much conversation on the subject, it was agreed to 
call a general meeting for the purpose of devising the best, 
surest and most peaceful method of removing from the 
country the many white men, who, residing in the district 
without property, or without interest in preserving the 
morals of tlio slaves, were believed to carry on an unlaw- 



CHARLES BALL. 2C9 ^ 

ful and criminal traffic with the negroes, to the great in- 
jury of the planters in general, and of the master of the 
slaves who dealt with the offenders, in particular. 

I was present at this preliminary consultation, which 
took place at my master's cotton>gin, whither the gentle- 
men had reepaired for the purpose of looking at the place 
where the cotton had been removed. So many cases of 
this forbidden traffic between the slaves and these ''white 
negro dealers," as they were termed, were here related by 
the different gentlemen, and so many white men were 
referred to by name, as being concerned in this criminal 
business, that I began to suppose the losses of the planters 
in this way, must be immense. 

This conference continued until I had totally forgotten 
the scrutinizing look that I had received from our overseer, 
at the time I came up from the fishery in the morning; 
but the period had now come when I was again to be re- 
minded of this circumstance, for on a sudden the overseer 
called me to come forward and let the gentlemen see me. 
I again felt a vague and undefinable apprehensin that no 
good was to grow out of this examination of my person, 
but a command of our overseer was not to be disobeyed. 
After looking at my face with a kind of leer or side glance, 
one of the gentlemen, who was an entire stranger to me, 
and whom I had never before seen, said, ''Boy, you appear 
to live well J how much meat does your master allow you 
in a week?" 

I was almost totally confounded at the name of meat, 
and felt the blood rush to my heart, but nevertheless 
forced a sort of smile upon my face, and replied— "My 
master has been very, kind to all hii5 people of late, but 
has not allowed us any meat for some weeks. We have 



270 THE ADVENTURES OF 

plenty of good bread, and abundance of river fish, whicb, 
too-ether with the heads and roes of the shad that we have 

o 

salted at the landing, makes a very excellent living for us; 
though 'if master would please to give a little meat now 
and then, we should be very thankful for it." 

This speech, which contained all the eloquence that I 
was master of at the time, seemed to produce some effect 
in my favor, for the gentleman said nothing in reply, 
until the overseer, rising from a board on which he had 
been sitting, came close up tome and said — "Charles, 
you need not tell lies about it; you have b^en eating 
meat, I know you have; no negro could look as fat, and 
sleek, and black, and greasy, as you, if he had nothing 
to eat but corn bread and river chubs. You do not look 
at all as you did before you went to the fishery; and all the 
hands on the plantation have had as many chubs and other 
river fish as they could oat, as well as you, and yet they 
are as poor as snakes in comparison with you. Come, 
tell us the truth, let us know where you get the meat that 
you have been eating, and you shall not be whipped.'^ 

I begged the overseer and the other gentlemen, not to 
ridicule or make sport of me, because I was a poor slave, 
and was obliged to live on bread and fresh-water fish ; and 
concluded this second harangue, by expressing my thank- 
fulness, to God Almighty, for giving me such good health, 
and strength, as to enable me to do my work, and look so 
well as I did, upon such poor fare ; adding, that if I only 
had as much bacon, as I could eat, they would soon see a 
man of a different appearance, from that which I now ex- 
hibited. ^^None of your palaver,'' rejoined the overseer^ — 
"Why, T smell the meat in you this moment. Do I not 
see the grease, as it runs out of your face." I was by 
this time in a profuse sweat, caused by the anxiety of my 



CHARLES BALL. 271 

feelings^ and simply said, ^'Master sees me sweat, I sup- 
pose/' 

All the gentlemen present, then declared, with one 
accord, that I must have been living on meat for a long 
time, as no negro, who had no meat to eat, could look as 
I did; and one of the company advised the overseer to 
whip me, and compel me to confess the truth. I have no 
doubt that this advice would have been practically follow- 
ed, had it not been for a happy, though dangerous sugges- 
tion of my own mind, at this moment. It was no other 
than a proposal on my part, that I should be taken to. the 
landing, and if all the people there did not look as well, 
and as much like meat-eaters as I did, then I would agree 
to be whipped in any way the gentleman should deem ex- 
pedient This offer on my part, was instantly accepted 
by the gentlemen, and it was agreed amongst them that 
they would all go to the landing, with the overseer; partly 
for the purpose of seeing me condemned, by the judgment 
to which I had voluntarily chosen to submit myself, and 
partly for the purpose of seeing my master's new fishery. 
We were quickly at the landing, though four miles dis- 
tant ; a#i I now felt confident that I should escape the 
dangers that beset me, provided the master of the fishery 
did not betray his own negligence, and lead himself, as 
well as us, into new troubles. 

Though on foot, I was at the landing as soon as the 
gentlemen, and was first to announce to the master, the 
feats we had performed in the course of the day ; adding 
with great emphasis, and even confidence in my manner, 
"You know, master, fish-master, whether we have had any 
meat to eat here, or not. If we had meat here, would not 
you see it? You have been up with us every night, and 
know that Wo have not been allowed, to take even shad ; 



272 THE ADVENTUKES OP 

let aloue having meat to eat.'' The fish-master suppoi-ted 
me in all I said ; declared we had been good boys- — had 
worked night and day, of his certain knowledge, as he 
had been with us all night, and every night, since We 
began to fish. That he had not allowed us to eat any 
thing but fresh water fish, and the heads and roes of the 
Bhad, that were salted at the landing. As to meat, he 
said he was willing to be qualified on a cart load of testa- 
ments, that there had not been a pound at the landing, 
since the commencement of the season, except that which 
he had in his own cabin. I had now acquired confidence, 
and desired the gentlemen to look at Nero and the other 
hands, all of whom had as much the appearance of bacon 
eaters, as myself. This was the truth, especially with 
regard to one of the men, who was much fatter than I was. 

The gentlemen now began to doubt the evidence of 
their own senses, which they had held infallible heretofore. 
I showed the fine fish that we had to eat ; cat, perch, 
mullets, and, especially, two large pikes, that had been 
caught to day ; and assured them, that upon such fare as 
this, men must needs get fat. I now perceived that vic- 
tory was with me for once. All the gentleman faltered, 
hesitated, and began to talk of other afi"airs, except the 
overseer, who still ran about the landing, swearing and 
scratching his head, and saying it was strange that we 
were so fat, whilst the hands on- the plantation were as 
lean as sand-hill cranes. He was obliged to give the 
affair over. He was no longer supported by my young 
master, and his companions, all of whom congratulated 
themselves upon a discovery so useful and valuable to the 
planting interest ; and all determined to provide, as soon 
as possible, a proper supply of fresh fish, for their hands. 

The two bales of cotton were never once named, and, I 



CHARLES BALL. 27B 

suppose, were not thought of hj the gentloinen, when at 
the landing; and this was well for Nero; for such waa 
'the terror and consternation into which he was thrown, 
by the presence of the gentlemen, and their inquiries con- 
cerning our eating of meat, that the sweat rolled off him 
like rain from the leaves of the plant never-ioct, his coun- 
tenance was wild and haggard, and his knees shook like 
the wooden spring of a wheat fan. I believe, that if 
they had charged him at once, with stealing the cotton, 
he would have confessed the deed. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

After this, the fishing season passed off without any 
thiuo- having happened, worthy of being noticed here. 
When we left the fishery, and returned to the plantation, 
which was after the middle of April, the corn and cotton 
had all been planted ; and the latter had been rc-planted J 
I was sot to plough, with two mules for my team; and 
haviijg never been accustomed to ploughing with these 
animals, I had much trouble with them at first. My mas- 
ter owned more than forty mules, and at this season of 
the year, they were all at work in the cotton field, used 
instead of horses for drawing ploughs. Some of the lar- 
gest were hitched single to a plough ; but the smallest 
were coupled together. 

On the whole, the fishery had been a losing affair with 
me; for although I had lived better at the landing, than 
I usually did at the plantation, yet I had been compelled 
X 



^T"i THE ADViiNTUKBS OS 

to vrork all tlie tltiie, by tiigbt aad by day, iuclndTng Sun- 
day, for my Tnastel-'; by which I had lost all that I could 
have earhod' for my own beueSt, had I been on the planta- 
tion. I had now bocomo so well acqimint-cd with the rules 
of th«- plantation, Jtnd the customs of the country where 
I lived; that I experienced less distress than I did at my 
first comiag to the Solith. 

We now received a shad every Monday morning, with 
our peek of corn. These fish were those that I had eaught 
in the spring ; and were tolerably preserved. In addition 
to all this, each one of the hands now received a pint of 
vinegar, every week. This vinegar was a great comfort 
to me. As the weather becalne hot, I gathered lettuce, 
and other salads, from my garden in the woods ; which, 
with the vinegar and bread, furnished me many a cheerful 
meal. The vinegar had been furnished to us by our mas- 
ter, more out of regard to our health, than to our comfort; 
but it greatly promoted both. 

The affairs of the plantation now went on quietly, until 
after the cotton had been ploughed, and hoed the first 
time, after re-planting. The working of the cotton crop 
is not disagreeable labor; no more so than the culture of 
corn ; but we were called upon to perfonn a Ijind of labor 
than which, none can be more toilsome to the body, or 
dangerous to ths health. 

I have elsewhere informed the reader, that my master 
was a cultivator of rice, as well as of cotton. Whilst I 
was at the fishery, in the spring, thirty acres of swamp 
land had been cleared off, ploughed, and planted in rico. 
The water had now been turned oif the plants, and the 
field was to be ploughed and hoed. When we were taken 
to the rice field, the weather was very hot ; and the ground 
was yet muddy and wot. The ploughs were to be dragged 



{ 



chaiwlA* ball. 21^ 

throiigli the wet ir,\\^ and the young rice had to be cleaned 
of weeds, by the hand, and hilled up with the hoe. It ia 
the common opinion, that bo stranger can work a week in 
a rice swamp, at this season of the year, without becom- 
ing sick ; and all the new hands) three in number, besidei 
myself, were taken ill within the first five days, after wo 
had entered this fi^ld. The otjier three were removed to 
the sick room ; but I did not go there, <;hoosing rather io 
remain at the quarter, wherB I was my own master, j?xcept 
that the doctor, who called to see me, took a large quanti- 
ty of blood from my arm, and compelled me to take a 
dose of some sort of medicine, that made me very sick, 
And caused mo. io vomit violently. This happened on tha 
«econd day of my illness, aiad from this time I recovered 
ilowly^ but was not able to go to the field again, for morB 
jthan a week. Here, it is bist justice to my master to say, 
that during all the time of my illness, some one came 
ifrom the great house, every day, to enquire after me, and 
to offer mo some kind of light, and coal refreshment, i 
might hare gone to the sick room, at anj time, if I had 
chosen to de «o. 

An opinioB g-eKerally prevails amongst the people of 
feoth colors, that the drug copperas is very poisonous; and 
perhaps it may b^ so, if tak^a in large quantities ; but 
the circumstance, that it is used in medicine, seems to 
forbid th-s notion of itg poi^ono^s qualities. I believ-d 
vi-opperas ^^s uiiogled with the portion tho doctor gave to 
me. Some overseere. keep copperas by t^em, as a medi- 
x;iae, io be a(imiui«tefcd to t^ hands whenever they 
Hjecom^ fcickj bu-t tibis I take to be a bad practice; for 
although in sQUie cases, this drug may be very efficacious, 
it eertaijaly should \>^ ftdmipietered by a more skilful hand 
ihan Mi^t of an ©vftri^war^ It, .ho\w\»«y;.hAa the eile^t of 



*2S THK AI»VENTURES OF 

deterring the people from complaining of illness, until 
they are no longer able to work ; for it is the most nause- 
ous and sickening medicine, that was ever taken into the 
stomach. Ignorant or malicious oyerseers, may, and often 
do, misapply it ; as was the case with our overseer, when 
he compelled poor Lydia to take a draught of its solution. 
After the restoration of my health, I resumed my accus- 
tomed labor in the field, and continued it without inter- 
mission, until I left this plantation. We had this year, 
as a part of our crop, ten acres of indigo. This plant is 
worked nearly after the manner of rice, except, that it is 
planted on high and dry ground, whilst the rice is always 
cultivated in low swamps, where the ground may be inun- 
dated with water; b]iit notwithstanding its location on dry 
ground, the culture of indigo, is not less unpleasant than 
that of rice. "When the rice is ripe, and ready for the 
Eiekle, it is no longer disagreeable ; but when the indigo 
is ripe, and ready to cut, the troubles attendant upon jl 
have only commenced. 

In the early part of June, our shad, that each one had 
been used to receive, was withheld from us, and we no 
longer received anything but the peck of corn, and pint 
of vinegar. This circumstance, in a community less 
severely disciplined than ours, might have produced mur- 
murs ; but to us, it was only announced by the fact, of 
the fish not being distributed to us on Monday mcrning. 

This was considered a fortunate season by our people. 
There had been no exemplary punishment, inflicted 
amongst us for several months ; we had escaped entirely 
upon the occasion of the stolen bags- of cotton, though 
nothing less was to have been looked for on that occur- 
renco, than a general whipping of the whole gang. 

There wag more or lees of whipping amongst ub^ every 



CHARLES BALL. 277 

week; frequerjtly, one was flogged every evening, over 
and above the punishments that followed on each settle- 
ment day ; but these chastisements, which seldom exceed- 
ed ten or twenty lashes, were of little import. I was 
careful, for my own part, to conform to all the regulations 
of the plantation. When I no longer received my fish 
from th^ overseer, I found* it necessary again, to resort to 
my own expedients, for the purpose of procuring some- 
thing in the shape of animal food, to add to my bread and 
greens. 

I had by this time, become well acquainted with the 
woods and swamps, for several miles round our plantation; 
and this being the season when the turtles came upon the 
land, to deposit their eggs, I availed myself of it, and 
going ^ut one Sufiday morning, caught, in the course of 
the day, by travelling cautiously around the edges of the 
swamps, ten snapping turtles, four of which were very 
large. As I caught these creatures, I tied each one with 
hickory bark, and hung it up to the bough of a tree, so 
that I could come and carry it home at my leisure. I 
afterwards carried my turtles home, and put them into a 
hole that I dug in the ground, four or five feet deep, and 
secured the sides, by driving small pieces of split timber 
info the ground, quite round the circumference of the 
hole, the upper ends of the timber standing out above the 
ground. Into this hole^ I poured water at pleasure, and 
kept my turtles until I needed them. 

On the y.ext Suj|J|V, I again went to the swamps, to 
search for !UTtles:Hpo3 the period of laying their eggs 
had nearly passed, I had poor success to-day, only taking 
two turtles, of the species called skill-pots — a kind of 
large terrapin, with a speckled back and red belly. This 
day^ when 1 was three or four miles from home, in a very 



278 THE ADVENTURES OF 

tclkary part of the swamps, I heard the sound of bells 
similar to those which wagoners place on the shoulders of 
their horses. At fii'st the noise of bells of this kind, in a 
placd where they were so unexpected, alarmed me, as I 
could not imagine, who, or what it was that was causing 
these bells to ring- I was standing near a pond of water, 
and listening attentively ; I thought the.'bells were moving 
in the woods, and coming towards me. J therefore 
crouched down upon the ground, under cover of a cluster 
of small bushes that were near me, and lay, not free from 
disquietude, to await the near approach of these mysteri- 
ous bells. 

Sometimes they were quite silent, for a minute or more 
at a time, and then again would jingle quick, but not loud. 
They were evidently approaching me ; and at length, I 
heard foot-steps distinctly in the leaves, which lay dry J 
upon the ground, A feeling of horror seized me at this I 
moment, for I now recollected that I was on the verge of 
the swamp, near which the vultures and carrion crows had 
mangled the living bodies of the two murderers; and my 
terror was not abated, when a moment after, I saw come 
from behind a large tree, the form of a brawny, famished 
looking, black man, entirely naked, with his hair matted 
and shaggy; his eyes wild and rolling; and bearing over 
his head, something in the form of an 9,reh, elevated three 
feet above his hair, beneath the top of which, were sus- 
pended the bells, three in number, whose sound had frst 
attracted my attention. Upon a. gloser examination of 
this frightful figure, I perceived that it wore a collar of 
iron about its neck, with a large padlock pendant from 
behind, and carried in its hand, a long staff, with an iron 
Fpear in one end. The staff, like everything else belong- 
ing to thii strange spectre, was black It glowly ap- 



CHARLES BALL. 279 

proached within ten paces of me^ and j^tood Btill. The 
sun was now down, and the early twilight produced by 
the gloom of the heavy forest, in the midst of which I 
was, added approaching darkness to heighten my dismay. 
My heart was in my mouth; all the haiVs of my head 
started from their sockets ; I seemed to be rising from my 
hiding place into the open air, in spite of myself, and I 
gasped for breath. 

The black apparition moved past me, went to the water 
and kneeled down. The forest re-echoed with the sound 
of the bells, and their dreadful peals filledjthe deepest 
recesses of the swamps,- as their bearer drank the water of 
the pond, in which I thought I heard his irons hiss, when 
they came in contact with it. I felt confident that 1 wa« 
now in the immediate presence of an inhabitant of a nether 
and fiery world, who had been permitted to escape for a 
time, from the place of his torment, and come to re-visit 
the scenes of his for^r crimes. I now gave myself up 
for lost, without other aid than my own, and began to 
pray aloud to heaven to protect me. At the sound of my 
voice, the supposed evil one appeared to be scarcely less 
alarmed than I was. He sprang to his feet, and at a sin- 
gle bound, rushed mid-deep into the water, then turning, 
he besought me in a suppliant and piteous tone of voic«, 
to have mercy upon him, and not carry him back to his 
master. 

The suddenness with which we pass fro% the extreme 
of one passion to the utmost bounds of another, is incon- 
ceivable, and must be assigned to the catalogue of un- 
r known causes and elTects; unless we suppose the human 
frame to be an involuntary machine, operated upon by 
surrounding objects, which give it different and contrary 
•impulses, as a ball is driven t<T and fro by the batons of 



280 THE ADVENTURES OF 

boj8, when they play in troops upon a common. I had 
no sooner heard a human voice than all my fears fled, as 
a spark that ascends from a heap of burning charcoal, 
and vanishes to nothing. 

I at once perceived that the object that had "vrell nigh 
deprived me of my reason, so far from having either th^ 
will or the power to injure me, was only a poor destitute 
African negro, still more wretched a,nd helpless than my- 
self. V 

Eising from the bushes, I now advanced to the water 
side, and desired him to come out without fear, and to be 
assured that if I could render him any assistance, I would 
do it most cheerfully. As to carrying him back to hi» 
master, I was more ready to ask help to deliver me from 
my own, than to give aid to any one in forcing him back 
to his. 

We now went to a place in the forest, where the ground 
was, for some distance, clear of trees, and where the light 
of the sun was yet so strong, that every object could be 
seen. My new friend now desired me to look at his back, 
which was seamed and ridged with scars of the whip and 
hickory, from the pole of his neck to the lower extremity 
of the spine. The natural color of the skin had disap- 
peared, and was succeeded by a streaked and speckled 
appearance of dusky white and pale flesh color, scarcely 
any of the original black remaining. The skin of this 
man's back ^had been again and again cut away by the 
thong, and renewed by the hand of nature, until it was 
grown fast to the flesh, and felt hard and turgid. 

He told me his name was Paul; that he was a native 
of Congo, in Africa, and had been a slave five years; that 
he had left an aged mother, a widow, at home, as aleo a 
wife and four children ; that it had been hia misfortune 



i 



CHARLES BALL. 281 

■to fall into the hands of a master who was frequently 
drunk, and whose temper was so savage, that his chief 
delight appeared to consist in whipping and torturing his 
slaves, of whom he owned near twenty ; but through some 
unaccountable caprice, he had contracted a particular dis- 
like against Paul, whose life, he now declared to me, 
was insupportable. He had then been wandering in the 
woods more than three weeks, with no other subsistence 
than the land tortoises, frogs, and other reptiles that he 
had taken in the woods, and along the shores of the ponds, 
with the aid of his spear. He had not been able to take 
any of the turtles in the laying season, the noise of his 
bells frightened them, and they always escaped to the 
water before he could catch them. He had found many 
eggs, which he had eaten raw, having no fire, nor any 
means of making fire, to cook his food. He had been 
afraid to travel much in the middle of the day, lest the 
sound of his bells should be heard by some one, who 
would make his master acquainted with the place of his 
concealment. The only periods when he ventured to go 
in search of food, were early in the morning, before the 
people could have time to leave their homes and reach the 
swamp; or late in the evening, after those who wore in 
pursuit of him had gone to their dwellings for the night. 

This man spoke our language imperfectly, but pos- 
sessed a sound and vigorous understanding; and reasoned 
with me upon the propriety of destroying a life which 
was doomed to continued distress. He informed me that 
he had first run away from his master more than two 
years ago, after being whipped with long hickory switches 
until he fainted. That he concealed himself in a swamp, 
at that time, ten or fifteen miles from this place, for more 
than six mpnthB, but was finally betrayed by a woman 



282 THE Ar»VENTURES OF 

whom he sometimes visited; that when taken^ he wag 
again whipped until he could uot stand, and had a heavy 
block of wood chained to one foot, which he was obliged 
to drag after him at his daily labor, for more than three 
months, when he found an old file, with which he cut the 
irons from his ancle, and again escaped to the woods, but 
was retaken within little more than a week after his flight, 
by two men who were looking for their cattle, and came 
upon him in the woods where he was asleep. 

On being returned to his master, he was again whipped; 
and then the iron collar that he now wore, with the iron 
rod, extending from one shoulder over his head to th® 
other, with the bells fastened to the top of the arch, were 
put upon him. Of these irons he could not divest him- 
self, and wore them constantly from that time to the pres- 
ent. 

I had no instruments with me, to enable me to release 
Paul from his manacles, and all I could do for him was to 
desire him to go with me to the place where I had left my 
terrapins, which I gave to him, together with all the egga 
that I had found to-day, I also caused him to lie down, 
and having furnished myself with a flint stone, (many of 
which lay on the edge of the pond,) and a handful of dry 
moss, I succeeded in striking fire from the iron collar, 
and made a fii-e of sticks, upon which he could roast the 
terrapins and eggs. It was now quite dark, and I was 
full two miles from my road, with no path to guide me 
towards home, but the small traces made in the woods by 
the cattle. 

I advised Paul to bear his misfortunes as well as he 
could, until the next Sunday, when I would return and 
bring with me a file, and other things necessary to the 
removal of bis fetters. I now set out alone, to make my 



I 



CHARLES BALL. 2^ 

way home, not without some little feeling of trepidation, 
as I pa.ssed along the dark shade of the pine trees, and 
thought of the terrific deeds that had been done in these 
woods. 

This was the period of the full moon, which now rose, 
and cast her brilliant rays through the tops of the trees 
that overhung my way, and enveloped my path in gloom, 
more cheerless than the total obscurity of total darkness. 
yhe path I travelled led by sinuosities around the margin 
of the swamp, and finally ended at the extremity of 
the cart-road terminating at the spot where David and 
Hardy had been given alive for food to vultures ; and 
over this ground I was now obliged to pass, unless I 
chose to turn far to the left, through the pathless forest, 
and make my way to the road, near the spot where the 
lady had been torn from her horse. I hated the idea of 
acknowledging to my own heart, that I was a coward, and 
dare not look upon the bones of a murderer at midnight ; 
and there was little less of awe attached to the notion of 
visiting the ground where the ghost of the murdered 
woman was reported to wander in the moonbeams, than in 
visiting the scones where diabolical crimes had been visit- 
ed by fiend-like punishment. 

My opinion is, that there is no one who is not at times 
subject to a sensation approaching fear, when placed in 
situations similar to that in which I found myself this 
night. I did not believe that those who had passed the 
dark line which separates the living from the dead, could 
again return to the earth, either for good or evil ; but that 
solemn foreboding of the heart, which directs the minds 
of all men to the contemplation of the just judgment, 
which a superior and unknown power holds in reservation 
for the deeds of this life, filled mv eoul with a dread con- 



284 THE ADVENTUIiES OF 

ception ot the unutterable woes which a righteous and 
unerring tribunal must award to the blood-stained spirits 
of the two men, whose lives had closed in such unspeaka- 
ble torment by the side of the path I was now treading. 

The moon had risen high above the trees, and shone 
with a clear and cloudless light; the whole firmament of 
heaven was radiant with the lustre of a mild and balmy 
summer evening. Saving only the droppings of the early 
dew from the lofty branches of the trees into the water, 
which lay in shallow pools on my right, and the light 
trampling of my own footsteps, the stillness of night 
pervaded the lonely wastes around me. But there is a 
deep melancholy in the sound of the heavy drop, as it 
meets the bosom of the wave, in a dense forest at night, 
that revives in the memory the recollection of the days of 
other years, and fills the heart with sadness. 

I was now approaching the unhallowed groimd where 
lay the remains of the remorseless and guilty dead, who 
had gone to their final account, reeking in their sins, una- 
toned, unblest, and unwept. Already I saw the bones, 
whitened by the rain, and bleaching in the sun, lying 
scattered and dispersed, a leg here and an arm there, 
whilst a scull with the under jaw in its place, retaining all 
its teeth, grinned a ghastly smile, with its front full in 
the beams of the moon, which falling in the vacant sock- 
ets of the eye-balls, reflected a pale shadow from these 
deserted caverns, and played in twinkling lustre upon the 
bald and skinless forehead. 

In a moment the night-breeze agitated the leaves of the 
wood, and moaned in dreary sighs through the lofty pine 
tops; the gale shook the forest in the depth of its soli, 
tudes; a cloud swept across the moon, and her light 
disappeared; a flock of carrion crows, disturbed in their 



CHARLES BALL. 285 

roostS; flapped their wings aud fluttered over mj head; 
and a wolf^ which had been gnawing at the bones, greeted 
the darkness with a long and dismal howl. 

I felt the blood chill in my veins, and all my joints 
shuddered, as if I had been smitten by electricity. At 
least a minute elapsed before I recovered the power of 
self-government. I hastened to fly from a place devoted 
to crime, where an evil genius presided in darkness over a 
fell assembly of howling wolves and blood-snuffing vul- 
tures. 

When I arrived at the quarter, all was quiet. The 
inhabitants of this mock village were wrapped in forget- 
fulness; and I stole silently into my little loft, and joined 
my neighbors in their repose. Experience had made me 
so well acquainted with the dangers that beset the life of 
a slave, that I determined, as a matter of prudence, to say 
nothing to any one of the adventures of this Sunday; 
but went to work on Monday morning, at the summons of 
the overseer's horn, as if nothing unusual had occurred. 

In the course of the week, I often thought of the for- 
lorn and desponding African, who had so terrified me in 
the woods, and who seemed so grateful for the succor I 
gave him. I felt anxious to become better acquainted 
with this man, who possessed knowledge superior to the 
common race of slaves, and manifested a moral courage, 
in the conversation that I had with him, worthy of a 
better fate than that to which fortune had consigned him. 
On the following Sunday, having provided myself with a 
large file, which I procured trom the blacksmith's shop, 
belonging to the plantation, I again repaired to the place, 
at the side of the swamp, where I had first seen the figure 
of this ill-fated man. 

I eivpected that ho would be m waiting for mo at the 
Y 



286 THE ADVENTURES OP 

appointed pla<ie, as I had promised him that I would cer- 
tainly come again, at this time; but on arriving at the 
spot where I had left him, I saw no sign of any person. 
The remains of the fire that I had kindled were here, and 
it seemed that the fire had been kept up for several days, 
by the quantity of aahes that lay in a heap, surrounded 
by numerous small brands. The impression of human 
feet were thickly disposed around this decayed fire, and 
the bones of the terrapins that I had given to Paul, as 
well as the skeletons of many frogs, were scattered upon 
the ground; but there was nothing that showed that any 
one had visited this spot since the fall of the last rain, 
which I now recollected had taken place on the previous 
Thursday. From this circumstance I concluded that Paul 
had relieved himself of his irons, and gone to seek con- 
cealment in some other place; or that his master had dis- 
covered his retreat, and carried him back to the planta- 
tion. 

Whilst standing at the ashes, I heard the croaking of 
ravens, at some distance in the woods, and immediately 
afterwards a turkey buzzard passed over me pursued by 
an eagle, coming from the quarter in which I had just 
heard the ravens. I knew that the eagle never pursued 
the buzzard for the purpose of preying upon him, but 
only to compel him to disgorge himself of his own prey 
for the benefit of the king of birds. I therefore concluded 
that there was some dead animal in my neighborhood, 
that had called all these ravenous fowls together. It 
might be that Paul had killed a cow, by knocking her 
down with a pine knot, and that he had removed his resi- 
dence to this slaughtered animal. Curiosity was aroused 
in me, and I proceeded to examine the woods. 

I had not advanced more than two hundred yards, 



CHARLES BALL. 287 

when I felt oppressed by a most sickening stench, and 
saw the trees swarming with birds of prey, buzzards 
perched upon their branches, ravens sailing amongst their 
boughs, and clouds of carrion crows flitting about, and 
poising themselves amongst their boughs in a stationary 
position, after the manner of that most nauseous of all 
birds, when it perceives, or thinks it perceives, some ob- 
ject of prey. Proceeding onward, I came in view of a 
large sassafras tree, around the top of which was congre- 
gated a cloud of crows, some on the boughs, and others 
on the wing, whilst numerous buzzards were sailing low 
and nearly skimming the ground. This sassafras tree 
had many low horizontal branches, attached to one of 
which I now saw the cause of so vast an assembly of the 
obscene fowls of the air. The lifeless body of the un- 
happy Paul hung suspended by a cord made of twisted 
hickory bark, passed in the form of a halter round the 
neck, and firmly bound to the limb of the tree. 

It was manifest that he had climbed the tree, fastened 
the cord to the branch, and then sprung off. The smell 
that assailed my nostrils was too overwhelming to permit 
me to remain long in view of the dead body, which was 
much mangled and torn, though its identity was beyond 
question, for the iron collar and the bells, with the arch 
that bore them, were still in their place. The bells had 
preserved the corpse from being devoured; for whilst I 
looked at it, I observed a crow descended upon it, and 
made a stroke at the face with its beak, but the motion 
that this gave to the bells caused them to rattle, and the 
bird took to flight. 

Seeing that I could no longer render assistance to Paul, 
who was now beyond the reach of his master's tyranny, 
as well as of my pity, I returned without delay to my 



!288 THE ADVENTURES OF 

master'a Louse- and going into the kitchen, related to the 
household servants that I had found a black man hung in 
the woods, "with bells upon him. This intelligence was 
soon communicated to my master, who sent for me to 
come into the house to relate the circumstance to him. I 
was careful not to tell that I had seen Paul before his 
death; and when I had finished my narrative, my master 
observed to a gentleman who was with him, that this was 
a heavy loss to the owner, and told me to go. 

The body of Paul was never taken down, but remained 
hanging where I had seen it, until the flesh fell from the 
bones, or was torn off by the birds. I saw the bones 
hanging in the sassafras tree more than two months after- 
wards, and the last time that I ever was in these swamps. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

An affair was now in progress, which, though the per- 
sons who were actors in it were far removed from me, 
had in its effects a great influence upon the fortunes of 
my life. I have informed tlie reader that my master had 
three daughters, and that the second of the sisters was 
deemed a great beauty. The eldest of the three was 
married, about the time of which I now write, to a planter 
of great wealth, who resided near Columbia; but the 
second Lad formed an attachment to a young gentleman 
whom she had frequently seen at the church attended by 
my ranstor's family. As this young man, either from 



CHARLES BALL. 289 

want of wealth, or proper persons to introduce him, had 
never been at my master's house, my young mistress had 
no opportunity of communicating to him, the sentiments 
she entertained towards him, without violating the rules 
of modesty, in which she had been educated. 

Before she would attempt anything, which might be 
deemed a violation of the decorum of her sex, she deter- 
mined to take a new method of obtaining a husband. She 
communicated to her father, my master, a knowledge of 
the whole affair, with a desire that he would invite the 
gentleman of her choice to his house. This the father 
resolutely opposed, upon the ground, that the young man, 
upon whom his daughter had fixed her heart, was without 
property, and consequently, destitute of the means of 
supporting his daughter, in a style, suitable to the rank 
she occupied in society. A woman in love, is not easily 
foiled in her purposes — my young mistress, by continual 
entreaties, so far prevailed over the affections, or more 
probably the fears of her father, that he introduced the 
young man to his f.imily, and about two months after- 
wards, my young mistress was a bride- — but it had been 
agreed amongst all the parties, as I understood, before the 
marriage, that as the son-in-law had no land or slaves of 
his own, ho should remove with his wife to a large tract 
of land, that my master owned in the new purchase, in 
the State of Georgia. 

In the month of September, 1806, my master came to 
the quarter one evening, at the time of our return from 
the field, in company with his son-in-law, and informed 
me, that he had given me, v/ith a number of others of his 
slaves, to his daughter ; and that I, with eight other men, 
and two or three women, must set out on the ^ next Sun- 
day^ with my new master, for his estate in Georgia, 



290 TIIK ADVENTURES OF 

whither we were to go, to clear land, build houses, and 
make other improvements, necessary for the reception of 
the newly married lady, in the following spring. 

I was much pleased with the appearance and manners 
of my new master, who was a young man, apparently 
about twenty-seven or eight years old, and of good figure. 
We were to take with us, in our expedition to Georgia, a 
wagon, to be drawn by six mules, and I was appointed to 
drive the team. Before we set off, my young mistress 
came in person to the quarter, and told us, that all those 
who were going to the new settlement, must come to the 
house, where she furnished each of us, with two full suits 
of clothes, one of coarse woollen, and the other of hempen 
cloth. She also gave a hat to each of us, and two pair of 
shoes, with a trifle in money, and enjoined us to be good 
boys and girls, and get things ready for her, and that 
when she should come to live with us, we should not be 
forgotten. The conduct of this young lady was so differ- 
ent from that which I had been accustomed to witness, 
since I came to Carolina, that I considered myself highly 
fortunate in becoming her slave ; and now congratulated 
myself with the idea that I should, in future, have atnis- 
tress who would treat mc kindly, and if I behaved well, 
would not permit me to want. 

At the time appointed, we set out for Georgia, with all 
the tools and implements necessary to the prosecution of 
a now settlement. My young master accompanied us ; 
and travelled slowly for several days, to enable me to keep 
up with him. We continued our march in this order, 
until we reached the Savannah river, at the town of Au- 
gusta ; where my master told me, that he was so well sat- 
isfied with my conduct, that he intended to leave me with 
the team, to bri-ng on the goods, and the women and chil- 



CnARLES BALL. 291 

dreii ; but that ho would take the men, and push on, as 
fast as possible, to the new settlement, and go to work 
until the time of my arrival. He gave me directions to 
follow on, and inquire for Morgan county Court House ; 
and said, that he would have a person ready there, on my 
arrival, to guide me to him, and the people with him. 
He then gave me twenty dollars, to buy food for the 
mules, and provisions for myself, and those with me; and 
left me on the high road, master of myself and the team. 
I was resolved, that this striking proof of confidence, on 
the part of my master, should not be a subject of regret 
to him ; and pursued my route with the greatest diligence; 
taking care to lay out as little money as possible, for such 
things as I had to buy. On the sixth day, in the morn- 
ing, I arrived at our new settlement, in the midst of a 
heavy forest, of such timber as is common to that country, 
with three dollars and twenty -five cents in my pocket — 
part of the money given to me at Augusta This I offer- 
ed to return, but my master refused to take it, and told 
me to keep it for my good conduct. I now felt assured, 
that all my troubles in this world were ended, and that, 
in future, I might look forward to a life of happiness and 
ease ; for I did not consider labor any hardship, if I was 
well provided with good food and clothes, and my other 
wants were properly regarded. 

My master, and the people who were with him, had, 
before our arrival with the wagon, put up the logs of two 
cabins, and were engaged, when we came, in covering one 
of them v>'ith clapboards. In the course of the next day, 
we completed both these cabins, with puncheon floors, and 
small glass windows ; the sash and glass for which, ] 
had brought in the wagon. We put up two other cabins, 
and a stable for the mules^ and then begnn to dear land. 



129:2 THE Al>VfiNTURES OF 

After a few days, my master told me, he meant to go 
down into the settlements to buy provisions for the win- 
ter ; and that he should leave me to oversee the hands, 
and carry on the work, in his absence. He accordingly 
left us, taking with him, the wagon and two boys ; one to 
drive the team, and another to drive cattle and hogs, 
which he intended to buy, and drive to our settlement. I 
now felt myself almost proprietor of our new establish- 
ment; and believe the men left under my charge, did not 
consider me a very lenient overseer. I in truth, compel- 
led them to work very hard, as I did myself. At the end 
of a week, my master returned, with a heavy load of meal 
and bacon, with salt and other things that we needed ; and 
the day following, a white man drove to our station, sev- 
eral cows, and more than twenty hogs, the greater part of 
which were breeders. At this season of the year, neither 
the hogs nor the cattle required any feeding at our hands. 
The woods were full of nuts, and the grass was abundant ; 
but we gave salt to our stock, and kept the hogs in a pen 
two or three days, to accustom them to the place. 

We now lived very diflferently from what we did on my 
old master's plantation. We had as much bacon every 
day as we could eat ; which, together with bread and 
sweet potatos, which we had at will, constituted our fare. 
My master remained with us more than two months ; 
within which time we had cleared forty acres of ground, 
ready for the plough ; but, a few days before Christmas, 
an event took place, which, in its consequences, destroyed 
all my prospects of happiness, and totally changed the 
future path of my life. A messenger one day came to 
our settlement, with a letter, which had been forwarded 
in this manner, by the postmaster at the Court House, 
where the postofifice was kept. This letter contained 



CHARLllS BALL. 293 

iiitelligence of tLe suddeu death of my old master; and 
that difficulties had arisen in the family, which required 
the immediate attention of my young one. The letter waa 
written by my mistress. My master, forthwith, took an 
account of the stock of provisions, and other things that 
he had on hand, and putting the whole under my charge, 
gave me directions to attend t(#the work, and set off on 
horseback that evening; promising to return within one 
month at the farthest. We never saw him again, and. 
heard nothing of him,- until late in the month of Jan- 
uary, 1807, when the eldest son of my late master, came 
to our settlement, in company with a strange gentleman. 
The son of my late master, informed me, to my surprise 
and sorrow, that my young master, who had brought us 
to Georgia, was dead; and that he, and the gentleman 
with him, were administrators of the deceased, and had 
come to Georgia for the purpose of letting out on lease, 
for the period of seven years, our place, with all the peo- 
ple on it, including me. 

To me, the most distressing part of this news, was the 
death of my young master ; and I was still more sorry, 
when I learned that he had been killed in a duel. My 
young mistress, whose beauty had drawn around her, nu- 
merous suitors, many of whom were men of base minds 
and cowardly hearts, had chosen her husband, in the man- 
ner I have related ; and his former rivals, after his return 
from Georgia; confederated together, for the dastardly 
purpose of revenging themselves, of both husband and 
wife, by the murder of the former. 

In all parts of the cotton country, there are numerous 
taverns, which answer the double purpose of drinking 
and gambling houses. These places, which are, in reality 
no better than houses of ill famft, in the northern cities, 



i^94 TUE ADVENTURES OF 

are kept by men wbo are willing to abandon all preten- 
sions to the character and standing of gentlemen, for the 
hope of sordid gain; and are frequented by all classes of 
planters; though it is not to be understood^ that all the 
planters resort to these houses. There are men of high 
and honorable virtue amongst the planters, who equally 
detest the mean cupiditj^of the men -who keep these 
houses, and the silly wickedness of those who support 
them. Billiards is the game regarded as the most polite, 
amongst men of education and fashion ; but cards, dice, 
and every kind of game, whether of skill or of hazard, 
are openly played in these sinks of iniquity. So far as 
my knowledge extends, there is not a single district of 
ten miles square, in all the cotton region, without at least 
ona of these vile ordinaries, as thay are frequently and 
justly termed. The keeping of these houses, is a means 
of existence, resorted to by men of desperate reputation, 
or reckless character ; and they invite, as guests, all the 
profligate, the drunken, the idle and the unwary of the 
surrounding country. In a community, where the white 
man never works, except at the expense of forfeiting all 
claim to the rank of a gentleman, and where it is beneath 
the dignity of a man, to oversee the labor of his own 
plantation, the number of those who frequent these 
gaming houses, may be imagined. 

My young master, fortunately for his own honor, was 
of those who kept aloof from the precints of the tavern, 
unless compelled by necessary business to go there; but 
the band of conspirators, who had resolved on his destruc- 
tion, invited him through one of their number, who 
pretended to wish to treat with him concerning his prop- 
erty, to meet them at an ordinary one evening. Here a 
a quarrel was sought witli him, and he was challenged to 



CHARLES BALL. 295 

fight with pistols over the table round which they sat. 
My master, who, it appears, was unable to bear the 
reproach of cowardice, even amongst fools, agreed to fightj 
and as he had no pistols with him, was presented with a 
pair belonging to one of the gang; and accepted their 
owner as his friend or second in the business. The result 
vras as might have been expected; my master was killed 
at the fii'st fire, by a ball which passed through his breast, 
whilst his antagonist escaped unharmed, 

A servant was immediately despatched to my mistress, 
informing her of the death of her husband. She was 
awakened in the night to read the letter, the bearer hav- 
ing informed her maid that it was necessary for her to see 
it immediately. The shock drove her into a feverish 
delirium, from which she never recovered. At periods 
her reason resumed its dominion; but in the summer 
following she became a mother, and died in child-bed of 
puerperal fever. I obtained this account from the mouth of 
a black man, who was the travelling servant of the eldest 
son of my old master, and who was with his master 
at the time he came tb visit the tenant, to whom he lot 
his sister's estate in Georgia, in the year 1808. 

The estate to which I was now attached, was advertised 
to be rented for the term of seven years, with all the 
stock of mules, cattle, &;c. upon it; together with seven- 
teen slaves, six of whom were too young to be able to 
work at present. The price asked was one thousand dol- 
lars for the first year, and two thousand dollars for each 
of the six succeeding yearj; the tenant to be bound to 
clear thirty acres of land annually. 

Before the day on., which the estate was to be let, by 
the terms of the advertisement, a man came up from the 
neighborhood of Savannah, and agreed to take the new 



296 THE ADVENTURES OF 

plaulation, on the terms asked. He wars immediately put 
into possession of the premises, and from this moment I 
became his slave for the term of seven years. 

Fortune had now thrown me into the power of a new 
master, of whom, when I considered the part of the coun- 
try from whence he came, which had always been repre- 
sented to me as distinguished for the cruelty with which 
slaves were treated in it, I had no reason to expect much 
that was good. I had indeed, from the moment I saw 
this new master, and had learned the place of his former 
residence, made up my mind to prepare myself for a 
harsh servitude ; but as we are often disappointed for the 
worse, so it sometimes happens we are deceived for the 
better. This man was by no means so bad as I was pre- 
pared to find him; and yet I experienced all the evils in 
his service, that I had ever apprehended : but I could 
never find in my heart to entertain a revengeful feeling 
towards him, for he was as much of a slave as I was; and 
I believe, of the two, the greater sufferer. Perhaps the 
evils he endured himself, made him more compassionate of 
the sorrows of others; but notwithstanding the injustice 
that was done me, while with him, I could never look 
upon him as a bad man. 

At the time he took possession of the estate he wag 
alone, and did not let us know that he had a wife, until 
he had been with us at least two weeks. One day, how- 
ever, he called us together, and told us that he was going 
down the country to bring up his family; that he wished 
us to go on with the work on the place, in the manner he 
pointed out; and telling the rest of the hands that they 
must obey my orders, he left us. He was gone full two 
weeks; and when he returned, I had all the cleared land 
planted in cotton, corn and sweet potatOB, and had pro- 






CHARLES BALL. - 297 

grossed with the busincf-s of the plantation so much to his 
sjitisfaction, that he gave mo a dollar, with which I bought 
a pair of new trousers, — my old ones having been worn 
out in clearing the new land and burning logs. 

My master's famil}^, a wife and one child came with 
him; and my new mistress soon caused me to regret the 
death of my former young master, for other reasons than 
those of affection and esteem. This woman (though she 
was my mistress, I cannot call her a lady) was the daugh- 
ter of a very wealthy planter, who resided near Millcdge- 
ville, and had several children, besides my mistress. 

My master was a native of North Carolina; Jiad re- 
moved to Georgia, several years before this; had acquired 
some property, and was married to my mistress more than 
two years, when T became his slave for a term of years, 
asl have stated. I saw many families, and was acquaint- 
ed with the moral character of many ladies, while I lived 
in the south; but l.must, in justice to the country, sa}^, 
that my new mistress was the worst woman I ever saw 
amongst the southern people. Her temper was as bad as 
that of a speckled viper; and her language, when she was 
enraged, was a mere vocabulary of profanity and viru- 
lence. 

My master and mistress brought with them, when they 
came, twelve slaves, great and small, seven of whom were 
able to do field Avork. "We now had on our new place a 
very respectable force; and my master was a man who 
understood the means of procuring a good day's work 
from his hands, as well as any of his neighbors. He was 
also a man. who, when left to pursue his own inclinations, 
was kind and humane in his temper and conduct towards 
his people; and if he had possessed courage enough to 
whip his wife two or three timcf*, as he.j5ometim<^e whipped 
Z 



I'yj^ THE ADYENTtlPlS OF 

Itis slnve.^, aa«l cODipolled her to olserve a rule of conduct 
befitting her sex, I should huvr^ '^ad a tolerable time of 
ni}^ servitude witli him; and should, in all probalili+y, 
liave beou a slave in Georgia until this day. Before my 
mistress came, we had meat iu abunrlance; for my master 
had left his keys with me, and I dealt out the provisions 
to the people. 

Lest my master should complain of me at his return, or 
suspect that I had not been faithful to my trust, I had 
only allowed ourselves (for I fared in common with the 
others) one meal of meat in each day. We had several 
cows, that supplied us with milk, and a barrel of molasses 
was amongst tho st<)res of provisions. Wc hud mush, 
sweet potatos, milk, molasses, and sometimes butter for 
Ijreakfast and supper, and meat for dinner. Had we been 
permitted to enjoy this fine fare, after the arrival of our 
mistress, and had she been a woman of kindly disposition 
und lady-like manners, I should have considered myself 
well oSl in the world ; for I was now living in as good a 
<ountry an I ever saw, and I much doubt if there is a 
better one anywhere. 

Our mistress gave us a specimen of her character, on the 
lirst morning after her arrival amongst us, by beating 
severely with a raw cow-hide, the black girl who nursed 
the infant, because the child cried, and could not be kept 
silent, I perceived by this, that my mistrass possessed 
no control over her passions; and that, when enraged, she 
would find some victim to pour her fury upon, without 
regard to justice or mere y. 

When, we ^ere called to dinner, to-day, we had no meat, 
and a very short supply of bread; our meal being com- 
posed of badly cooked } . tatos, some bread, and a very 
small quantity of sour milk. From this time our allow- 



CHARLES BALL. 295 

ance of meat was withdrawn from us altogetlievj and wo 
had to live upon our bread, potatos, and the little milk 
that our mistress permitted us to have. The most vexa- 
tious part of the new discipline was the distinction that 
was made between us, who were on the plantation before 
our mistress came to it, and the slaves that she brought 
with her. To these latter she gave the best part of the 
sour milk, and I believe, frequently rations of meat. 

We were not, on our part, (I mean us of the old stock;) 
wholly without meat, for our master sometimes gave us a 
whole flitch of bacon at once. This he had stolen from 
his own smoke-house J I say stolen, because he took it 
without the knowledge of my mistress, and always charged 
us in the most solemn manner, not to let hvv know that 
we had received it. She was as negligent of the duties ol" 
a good housewife, as she was arrogant in assuiiiiii;;' the 
control of things not within the sphere of her domestic 
duties, and never missed the bacon that our master gave 
to U8, because she had not taken the trouble of cxaDiining 
the state of the meat-house. 

Obtaining all the meat we ate by stealth, ih rough our 
master, our supplies were not regular, coming once or 
twice a week, according to circumstances. n(.)weVcr, ae I 
was satisfied with the good intentions of my master to- 
wards me," I felt interested in his welfare, and in a short 
time became warmly attached to liim He fared but little 
better at the hands of my mistress than I did, except 
that as he ate at the same table with her, lie always 
had enough of comfortable food; but in the matter of ill 
language, I believe my master and I might safely have 
put our goods together as a joint stock in trade, without 
either the one or the other being greatly the losn\ T 
had secured the good opinion of my master, aud it. was 



?»00 THE ADVENTUKES OF 

perceivable by any one, that he had more euiifidencc ia 
me than in any of hia other slaves, and often treated me 
as the foreman of his people. 

This aroused the indignation of my mistress, who, with 
all her ill qualities, retained a sort of selfish esteem for 
the slaves who had come with her from her father's estate. 
She seldom saw me without giving me her customary sal- 
iitatioa of profanity; and she exceeded all other persons 
that I have ever known, in the quickness and sarcasm of 
the jibes and jeers with which she seasoned her oaths. 
To form any fair conception of her volubility and scurril- 
ous wit, was necessary to hear her, more especially on 
JSunday morning, or a rainy day, when the people were 
all loitering about the kitchens, which stood close round 
her dwelling. She treated my master with no more cere- 
mony than she did me. Misery loves company, it is said, 
and I verily believe that my master and I felt a mutual 
Attachment on account of our mutual sufferings. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The country I now lived in was new, and abounde?(I 
with every sort of game common to a new settlement. 
Wages were high, and I could sometimes earn a dollar 
and a half a day, by doing a job of work on Sunday. 
The price of a day's work here was a dollar. My master 
paid me regularly and fairly for all the work T did for 
him on Sunday, and I never went anywhere else to pro- 
cure work. All hig other hands were treated in the same 



#HARLEB BATJ.. * 301 

way. He also gave :r.e an old gun tkat had seen mweli 
hard service, for the t^.tock was quite shatt€re<l to pieces, 
aud the lock would not strike fire. I took my gun to a 
blacksmith in the neighborhood^ and he repaired die -lock, 
so that my musket was as sure fire as any piece need be. 
I found upon trial, that though the stock and lock bad 
been worn out, the barrel was none the worse for the 
service it had undergone. 

I now, for the first time in my life^ became a hiuitcr, in 
the proper sense of the word; and generally ii>anaged my 
affairs in such a way, as to get the half of Saturday to 
myself. This I did by prevailing on my ma-ster to set 
my task for the week on Monday morning. 

Saturday was appropriated to hunting, if I was not 
obliged to work all day, and I soon became pretty experi 
in the use of my gun. I made salt-licks in the woods, to 
which the deer en mo at night, aud I shot them from a 
seat of clap-board-, that was placed on the branches of 
a tree. Racoons r mounded here, and were of a large ?ii-:c, 
and fat at all seas as. In the month of April I saw the 
ground thickly strewod with nuts, the growth of the last 
year. I now bc^rBu to live well, notwithstanding the per- 
secution that my mistress still directed against me, and be- 
gan to feel myself, in some measure, an indepondent man. 

Serpents of various kinds swarmed in this country. I 
have killed more than twenty rattle-snakes in a day, and 
copper-heads were innumerable; but the snake that I 
most dreaded was the moccasin, which is quibe as veno- 
mous as the copper-head or rattle-snake^ and mucli more 
active and malicious. Vipers and other poisonous rep- 
tiles were innumerable; and in the swamps was a mon- 
Htrous serpent, though of rare occurrence, which was 
ready dangerous on account of its prrHiigioun !»ize. Thi« 
7a^' 



;-i02 THE ADVENTURES OF 

snake k of a brown color, with ashy white -^pots distribu- 
-, od over its body. It lives by catching rabbits and squir- 
rels, raccoons and other animal?. I have no doubt, that 
t'Oino of ibis species would attack and swallow children, 
several years old. I once shot one of these snakes, that 
wa^ more than eight feet long, and as thick as the leg of 
:iQ ordinary man. When coiled up, it appeared as large as 
a small calf, lying in its resting place. Panthers, wolves 
;tnd other beasts of prey, were common in the woods. 

I had always observed, that snakes congregate, either 
jn large groups, or in pairs; and that if one snake is 
killed, another is soon after seen, near the sanie place. I 

**one day killed an enormous rattlesnake, in the cotton 
Held, near my master's house. This snake was full w^ix 
feet in length, of a corresponding thickness, and had fangs 
an inch and three-quarters in length. "When dead, I 
skinned it, and stretched the skin on a board. A few 
days after, having occasion to cross a fence, near where I 
had killed the large snake, and jumping from the top of 
the fence upon the ground, without looking down, I 
alighted slose beside another rattlesnake, quite as large as 
the one I had killed. This one was lying at full length, 
and I was surprised, that it did not attempt to bite me, 
nor even to throw itself into coil. It only sounded its 
rattles; making a noise sujQ&ciently loud to be heard a 
hundred yards. I killed this snake also, and seeing it 
appear to be full of something that it had eaten, I ripped 
it open with my knife, and found the whole cavity of its 
body stuffed full of corn meal, that it had eaten in the 
iiouse where my master kept his stores ; to which it had 
ibund access, through some aperture in the logs of the 

" liouso. The Fiiake was so full of the meal, that it could 
not coil ilsclL imd thus saved my life; for the bite of such 



CHAKLES BALL. 308 

a snake as this was, is almost certain death. I knew a 
white man, some time afterwards, who was bitten, by one 
of these large rattlesnakes, in the hand, as he was trying 
to punch it to death with a stick in a hollow stump; and 
he died before he could be taken to his own house, which 
was little more than a mile from the place where he was 
bitten. ■> 

A neighbor of my master, was one day hunting deer 
in the woods with hounds ; and hearing one of his hounds 
ery out, as if hurt by something, the gentleman proceedea 
to the spot, and found his dog lying in the agonies of 
death, and a great rattlesnake near him. On examining 
the dog, it was found, that the snake had struck him with 
its fangs, in the side, and cut a deep gash in the skin. 
The dog being heated with running, death ensued almost 
instantly. 

I had a dog of my own, which I had brought with me 
from Carolina, and which was an excellent hunting dog. 
He would tree racoons and bears, and chase deer; and 
was so faithful, that I thought he would lose his life, if 
necessary, to my defence; but dogs, like men, have a 
certain limit, beyond which, their friendship will not 
carry them ; at least, it was so with my dog. 

Being in the woods one Sunday, at a place called the 
goose-pond; a shallow pool of water to which wild geese 
resorted, my dog came out of the cane to me, with his 
bristles raised, and showing by his conduct, that he had 
seen something in the canes of which he was afraid. I 
had gone to the pond that day, for the purpose of cutting 
and putting into the water, some sticks of a tree that 
grows in that part of Georgia, of which very good ropes 
can be made. The timber is cut and thrown into the 
water, until the bark becomes soft and loose, and it is then 



304 THE ADVENTURES OF 

peeled off, beaten and split to pieces; and of this bark, 
ropes can be made nearly equal to hempen ropes I got a 
good deal of money by making ropes of this bark and 
selling them. At the time I speak of, I had my axe with 
me, but was without my gun. I endeavored in vain to 
induce my dog to enter into the cane-break, and started 
on my way home, my dog keeping a little in advance of 
me, and frequently looking back. I had not proceeded 
far, before the cause of my dog's alarm became manifest. 
Looking behind me, I saw a huge panther creeping alon^ 
the path after me, in the manner that a oat creeps, when 
stealing upon her prey. I felt myself in danger, and 
again endeavored to urge my dog to attack the panther, 
but I could not prevail on him to place himself between 
me and the wild beast. I stood still for some time, and 
the panther lay down on the ground, still, however, look- 
ing attentively at me. When I again moved forward, the 
panther moved after me; and when I stopped and turned 
round, it stopped also. In this way I proceeded, alter- 
nately advancing and halting, with the panther sometimes 
within twenty st^ps of me, until I came in view of my 
master's clearing, when the panther turned off into the 
woods, and 1 saw it no more. I do not know whether 
this panther was in pursuit of me or my dog; but whether 
of the one or the other, it showed but little fear of both 
of us; and I believe, that if alone, it would not have 
hesitated to attack either of us. As soon as the panther 
disappeared, I went home, and told my master of my ad- 
venture. He sent immediately to the house of a gentle- 
man who lived two miles distant, who came, and brought 
his dogs with him. These dogs, when joined to my mas- 
ter's, made live in number. I went to the woods, and 
phowed the place where the panther had left me ; and the 



CHAKLES BALL. 305 

dogs immediately scented tlie trail, it was then late iu 
the evening, and the chase was continued until near day- 
break, the next morning, when the panther was forced to 
take a tree, ten miles from my master's house. It was 
shot by my master, with his rifle, and after it was dead, 
we measured it, from the end of the nose to the tip of the 
tail, and found the whole length to be eleven feet and ten 
inches. 

In the fall of this year, I went with my master to the 
Indian country, to purchase, and bring to the settlement, 
cattle and Indian horses. We travelled a hundred miles 
from the residence of my master, nearly west, before we 
came to any Indian village. The country where the In- 
dians lived, was similar in soil and productions, to that in 
which my master had settled ; and I saw several fields of 
corn, amongst the Indians, of excellent quality, and well 
enclosed with substantial fences. I also saw, amongst 
these people, several log houses, with square hewn logs. 
Some cotton was growing in small patches in the fields ; 
but this plant was not extensively cultivated. Large 
herds of cattle were ranging in the woods, and cost their 
owners nothing for their keeping, except a small quantity 
of salt. These cattle were of the Spanish breed ; gener- 
ally speckled, but often of a dun or mouse color, and 
sometimes of a leaden grey. They universally had long 
horns, and dark muzzles, and stood high on their legs, 
with elevated and bold fronts. When ranging in droves 
in the woods, they were the finest cattle, in appearance, 
that I ever saw. They make excellent working oxen; 
but their quarters are not so heavy and fleshy, as those of 
the English cattle. The cows do not give large quantities 
of milk. 

The Indian horses run at large in the woods, like the 



30G THE ADVENTURES OP 

cattle, and receiw no feed from their owners^ imlegs an 
some very cxtiaordi:''>ry occ'ision. Tlioy afe sihalj, but 
very handsome little aor.ios. I do not kn^w that i ever 
saw one of these horses more than fourteen hands high j 
but they are very strong and active, and when brought 
upon the plantation, and broken to work, they are hardy 
and docile, and keep fat on very little food. The prevail- 
ing color of these horses is black ; but many of them are 
beautiful greys, with flowing manes and tails, and of their 
size, are fine horses. 

My master bought fifty horses, and more than a hun- 
dred of the cattle ; and hired seven Indians, to help us to 
drive our drove into the settlement. We had only a path 
to travel in ; no road having been opened to the Indian 
country, of width sufficient for wagons to pass upon it; 
and I was often surprised at the agility of the Indians, in 
riding the imbroken horses along this path, and through 
the cane-brakes, which lined it on either side, in pursuit 
of the cattle, when any of them attempted ta leave the 
drove. With the horses, we had. but little trouble, after 
we had them once started on the path; but the cattle 
were much inclined to separate, and wander in the woods, 
for several days after we set "out from the nation ; but the 
greatest trouble was experienced at the time we halted in 
the evening, for the night. Some of the cattle, and many 
of the horses, would wander off from the fire, to a great 
distance in the woods, if not prevented ; and might at- 
tempt to return to the Indian country. To obviate this, 
as soon as the fire was kindled, and the Indians had taken 
their supper, they would take off into the woods in all 
directions, and stationing themselves at the distance of 
about half a quarter of a mile from the fire, would set up 
such a horrible yelling and whooping, that the whole 



CHARLES BALL. 807 

forest appeared to be full of demons, come to devour us, 
and our 'Irove too. Thi- noise never ftiilod to cause both 
liorsea and cattle to keep within the circle formed by the 
Indians ; and I believe we did not lose a single beast on- 
thc whole journey. 

My master kept many of the cattle, and several of the 
horses, which he used on the plantation, instead of mules. 
The residue he sold amongst the planters, and I believe 
the expedition yielded him a handsome profit in the end ; 
it also afforded me an opportunity of seeing the Cherokee 
Indians, in their own country, and of contrasting- the im- 
mense difference that exists between man in a state of civ- 
ilization and industry, and man in a state of barbarism 
and indolence. 

Ever since I had been in the southern country, vast 
numbers of African negroes lAd been yearly imported • 
but this year the business ceased altogether, and I did not 
see any African who was landed in the United States 
after this date. A few months after our return from the 
Indian country, an occurrence took place, which created 
a great ferment in the country, and was in itself, of so sin- 
gular a nature, that I shall present it to the reader as I 
heard it at the time. 

Soon after my master and mistress came to live on the 
plantation, another gentleman moved into this part of the 
country with his family, bringing with him fifteen or 
twenty slaves. Amongst these slaves, was a mulatto boy, 
apparently about ten years of age. There was nothing 
uncommon in the fact, that this mulatto child was held as 
a slave, for in the South, mulatto children are every day 
born of black mothers. These children, whose mothers 
are slaves, are slaves by birth ; and no inquiry is mado 
concerning the father; except as matter of curiosity 



308 THE ADVENTURES OF 

amongst tlic white ladies; or of jest and merriment 
amongst his companions and friends. Neither reproach 
nor blemish of reputation attaches to the father ; the child 
follows the condition of the mother, and is soon lost sight 
of, amongst the mass of slaves in the country. It is a 
fact, that cannot be denied, that the children and grand 
children, of many gentlemen of great respectability, and 
high consideration in society, are common slaves on the 
cotton plantations ; and this intercourse between the white 
gentlemen and the colored girls, has been the cause of 
many murders, and other crimes, that were never account- 
ed for. 

Soon after the child that I have mentioned, was brought 
into our neighborhood, there was a report heard amongst 
the colored people, that it was free ; and that its mother 
was a white woman ; thot^h it was said, that the child 
could not, or would not, give any account of his parentage.- 
One day, at the time I was at the house, eating my din- 
ner, a gentleman and lady rode into the 3'ard. My master 
called the gentleman, Sheriff; but did not know the lady 
until she was introduced to him. The sheriff then told 
my master, in my presence, that he had a writ in hio 
pocket, for the purpose of taking the mulatto boy before 
the court, for the object of having him set at liberty. 
He also said, that the lady then with him, was the mother 
of the boy. When this statement was made, the woman, 
who appeared to be twenty-five or thirty years old, drew 
her veil over her face, but said nothing. My master then 
desired the strangers to alight, and take dinner, to which 
they consented. 

My mistress then came to the door, and having either 
less of modesty, or less of humanity than my master, 
desired, or rather commanded, the strange Avoman to tell 



I 



CHAKLES BALL 309 

the circumstances connected with the birth of this boy 
and by what means he had been separated from her. My 
master expostulated with his wife, upon the rudeness, if 
not cruelty, of compelling the woman, who was of very 
lady-like appearance, to expose her misfortunes, or her 
crimes, before strangers 3 but my mistress little regarded 
this, and again insisted on the narrative of the whole 
affair. The sheriff then interposed, and promised my mis- 
tress, that he would go and bring the boy to the house, 
and suggested, that she might satisfy her curiosity in the 
mean time, by conversing with the stranger at her leisure. 

The sheriff went away, and returned again that same 
afternoon, to the house of my master, bringing with him 
the mulatto boy. The strange lady declared in my hear- 
ing, that the boy was her son ; but this was all I heard 
from her on the subject. He was taken by the sheriff, to 
the Court House, where, I heard from my master, that a 
long trial took place, which ended in the establishment of 
the boy's right to freedom ; and he was accordingly given 
up to his mother ; who took him away with her, out of 
this part of the country. 

After the return of my master from this trial, which he 
attended, I believe from compassionate motives, I heard 
him relate the circumstances attending it, which were as 
follows : — The mother of the boy, was the daughter of a 
wealthy planter, in one of the lower counties of Georgia. 
Her mother died when she was only ten years old ; leav- 
ing three children, of whom this daughter was the oldest. 
Her father, who was a man wholly taken up in the man- 
agement of his affairs, and the acquisition of riches, paid 
but little regard ^ the education of his children ; leaving 
them entirely to the care of a housekeeper, whom he hired 
by the year, not so much to attend the nurture and cul- 
Al - 



310 THE ADVENTURES OF 

ture of his children, as to superintend the household 
department of the plantation. 

The oldest daughter was taught to read and write, at a 
school that was kept by a poor woman, who lived near her 
father's residence; and at the age of ten years, was sent 
to a boarding school, in Charleston, where she remained 
until she was thirteen years old, when she was brought 
home by her father, and introduced to such company as 
visited his house. Here she was left to regulate her con- 
duct, by her own notions of propriety, the housekeeper 
being too ignorant to undertake the government of a 
young lady. The father still remained a widower; and it 
appeared, in the course of the evidence, as my master 
said, that a mulatto woman, who was retained about the 
family mansion, as a house servant, was the mother of 
several children, not so dark as herself. 

This woman finally quarrelled with the housekeeper, 
and drove her from the plantation, or compelled her to 
leave it, by her insolence. This happened soon after the 
daughter returned from the boarding school; and she was 
now left nominally, mistress of the mansion ; though 
really, this authority was vested in the mulatto woman, 
who had a son, about twenty years of age, whose father 
had been sold and sent out of the country, several years 
before this time. 

A little more than a year after the return of the young 
lady from the boarding school, she became the mother of 
the mulatto boy, that the sherifi' took from our neighbor- 
hood. Her brother and sister, who were younger than 
herself, had died before this time, and she was now the 
sole presumptive heiress of her father, who had a brother 
living on a neigliboring plantation. Several of the mater^ 
nal relations of the young lady, were also living; and 



J 



CHARLES BALL. 311 

before the birth of the child, and after the discovery of 
her situation, her father called together the different heads 
of the families connected with his own, for the purpose of 
consulting together, and devising some plan by which the 
affair could be kept from the world, and the honor of the 
family might be saved. ^ 

At this meeting, it was proposed to send the girl to one 
of the northern cities, until after her accouchment, that 
the child should be provided for in some way, and the 
mother returned home after the restoration of her health. 
This proposition was acceded to by all present, except the 
paternal uncle, who said he would agree to nothing, but 
the exposuYC of one who had brought such infamy upon 
the reputation of the family; and that if she was sent 
away, and secreted, he would himself divulge the whole to 
the world, lest it should be imagined that he, who was 
himself the father of several daughters, had given any 
countenance to so base an attempt to impose upon the 
public. It seems that this gentleman, assigned as an 
excuse, for his cruelty to the poor girl, a tenderness of the 
good name of his own family ; but it was said by many, 
that the hope of ruining his niece, and forcing her father 
to disinherit her, in favor of his own children, was not 
without weight in his mind. Be this as it may, the girl 
was kept in her father's house, until after the birth of her 
child, which she was not permitted to nurse j it being 
taken from her, and sent to the kitchen, to be nurtured 
by its paternal grandmother, the mulatto head servant. 
The mother was degraded from her rank in society ; and 
when the child was eight years old, it was sold as a slave 
by its grandfather, together with the mulatto woman, and 
all her children — the father of the girl being, at this time, 
paying his addresses to a widow lady, the relict of a 



812 THE ADVENTURES OF 

neighboring planter; and meeting with discouragement; 
on account of the condition of his -domestic affairs — he 
never succeeded in this matrimonial enterprise. 

He was murdered by one of his own slaves, a negro 
woman, whose husband he had sold to a man who was 
l^ing to New Orleans. The murderess accomplished her 
object, by secreting herself in his chamber, and cutting 
his throat with a carving knife, as he lay sleeping in a 
room, through the windows of which the moon shone. 
By his death, his whole estate, which was said to be of 
great value, descended to his daughter, who now became 
mistress of the entire property, to the utter extinction of 
the hopes of the uncle. She immediately took measures 
to trace out the identity and residence of her son; to 
claim whom, she came in person to the house of my mas- 
ter. 

I shall here submit to the reader, the results of the 
observations I have made on the regulations of southern 
society. It is my opinion, that the white people in gen- 
eral, are not nearly so well informed in the Southern 
States, as they are in those lying farther North. The 
cause of this may not be obvious to strangers ; but to a 
man who has resided amongst the cotton plantations, it is 
quite plain. 

There is a great scarcity of schools, throughout all the 
cotton country, that I have seen ; because the white pop- 
ulation is so thinly scattered over the country, and the 
families live so far apart, that it is not easy to get a suffi- 
cient number of children together, to constitute a school. 
The young men of the country, who have received educa- 
tions proper to qualify them for the profession of teachers, 
are too proud to submit to this kind of occupation ; and 
strangers, who come from the North, will not engage in a 



CHARLES BALL. 813 

service that is held in contempt, unless they can procure 
large salaries from individuals, or get a great number of 
pupils to attend their instructions, whose united contribu- 
tions may amount in the aggregate to a large sum. Great 
numbers of the young men of fortune are sent abroad to 
be educated ; but thousands of the sons of land and slave 
holders, receive very little education, and pass their lives 
in ignorant idleness. The poor white children are not 
educated at all. It is my opinion, that the women are not 
better educated than the men. 

A few of the great families live in a style of luxury and 
magnificence, on their estates, that people in the North 
ar« not accustomed to witness ; but this splendor is made 
up of crowds of slaves, employed as household servants, 
and a gaudy show of silver plate, rather than in good 
houses, or convenient furniture. Good beef and good 
mutton, such as are seen in Philadelphia and New York, 
are not known on the cotton plantations. Good butter is 
also a rarity ; and in the summer time, sweet flour, or 
sweet wheaten bread, is scarcely to be looked for. The 
flour is imported from the North, or West ; and in the 
hot, damp climate of the southern summer, it cannot be 
kept from souring, more than four or five weeks. 

The temper of my mistress grew worse daily — if that 
could grow worse, which was already as bad as it could be 
— and her enmity against me increased, the more she ob- 
served that my master confided in me. To enhance my 
misfortunes, the health of my master began, about this 
time, visibly to decline, and towards the latter end of the 
autumn of this year, he one day told me, that he believed 
he should not live long, as he already felt the symptoms 
of approaching decay and death. 

This was a source of much anxiety and trouble to mc ; 
Al* 



314 THE ADVENTURES OF 

for I clearly foresaw, that if ever I fell under the unbri- 
dled dominion of my mistress, I should regret the worst 
period of my servitude in South Carolina. I was much 
afraid, as the winter came on, that my master might grow 
worse, and pass to the grave in the spring, for his disease 
was a. consumption of the lungs ; and it is well known, 
that the spring of the year, which brings joy, gladness 
and vitality to all creation, animate and inanimate, except 
the victim of consumption, is often the season that con- 
signs him to the grave. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

"We passed this winter in clearing land, after we had 
secured the crops of cotton and corn ; and nothing hap- 
pened on our plantation, to disturb the usual monotony of 
the life of a slave, except, that in the month of January, 
my master informed pie, that he intended to go to Savan- 
nah, for the purpose of purchasing groceries, and such 
other supplies as might be required on the plantation, in 
the following season ; and that he intended to take down 
a load of cotton with our wagon and team ; and that I 
must prepare to be the driver. This intelligence was not 
disagreeable to me, as the trip to Savannah, would, in the 
first place, release me for a short time, from the tyranny 
of my mistress ; and, in the second, would give me an 
opportunity of seeing a great deal of strange country. I 
derived a third advantage, in after times, from this jour- 
ney ; but which did not enter into my estimate of this 
affair, at that time. 



CHARLES BALL. 315 

My master had not yet erected a cotton gin on his place; 
the land not being bis own ; and we hauled our cotton, in 
the seed, nearly three miles to be gined ; for which, we 
had to give one fourth to the owner of the gin. 

When the time of my departure came, I loaded my 
wagon with ten bales of cotton, and set out with the same 
team of six mules that I had driven from South Carolina. 
Nothing of moment happened to me, until the evening of 
the fourth day, when we were one hundred miles from 
home. My master stopped to night (for he travelled with 
me on his horse) at the house of an old friend of his ; 
and I heard my master, in conversation with this gentle- 
man, (for such he certainly was,) give me a very good 
character ; and tell him, that I was the most faithful and 
trusty negro that he had ever owned. He also said, that 
if he lived to see the expiration of the seven years, for 
which he had leased me, he intended to buy me. He 
said much more of me ; and I thought I heard him tell 
his friend, something about my mistress, but this was 
spoken in a low tone of voice, and I could not distinctly 
understand it. When I was going away in the morning 
with my team, this gentleman came out to the wagon, and 
ordered one of his own slaves to help me to put the har- 
ness on my mules. At parting, he told me to stop at his 
house on my return, and stay all night; and said, I should 
always be welcome to the use of his kitchen, if it should 
ever be my lot to travel that-^way again. 

I mention these trifles, to shoWy that if there are hard 
and cruel masters in the South, there are al'so others of a 
contrary character. The slaveholders are neither more 
nor less than men, some of whom are good, and very 
many are bad. My master and this gentleman, v/ere cer- 
tainly of the number of the good; but the contrast 



316 THE ADVENTURES OF 

between them, and some others that I have seen, was 
unhappily for many of the slaves, very great. I shall 
hereafter refer to this gentleman, at whose house I now 
was ; and shall never name him without honor, nor think 
of him without gratitude. 

As I travelled through the country with my team, my 
chief employment, beyond my duty of a teamster, was to 
observe the condition of the slaves on the various planta- 
tions by which we passed on our journey, and to compare 
things in Georgia, as I now saw them, with similar things 
in Carolina, as I had heretofore seen them. 

There is as much sameness amongst the various cotton 
plantations, in Georgia, as there is amongst the various 
farms in New York or New Jersey. He who has seen 
one cotton field, has seen all other cotton fielde, bating the 
difference that naturally results from good and bad soils, 
or good and bad culture ; but the contrast that prevails 
in the treatment of the slaves, on different plantations, is 
very remarkable. We travel leu a road that was not well 
provided with public houses, and we frequently stopped 
for the night, at the private dwellings of the planters ; 
and I observed that my master was received as a visiter, 
and treated as a friend in the family, whilst I was always 
left at the road, with my vragon, my master supplying me 
with money to buy food for myself, and my mules. 

It was my practice, when we remained all night at 
these gentlemen's houses, to go to the kitchen, in the 
evening, after I had fed my mules, and eaten my supper, 
and pass some time in conversation with the black people, 
I might chance to find there. One evening, we halted 
before sun-down ; I unhitched my mules at the road, 
about two hundred yards from the house of a planter, to 
which my master went to claim hospitality for himself. 



CHARLES BALL. 31T 

After I had disposed of my team for the night, and 
taken my supper, I went as usual, to see the people of 
color in the kitchen, belonging to this plantation. The 
sun had just set, when I reached the kitchen, and soon 
afterwards a black boy came in and told the woman, who 
was the only person in the kitchen when I came to it, 
that she must go down to the overseer's house. She im- 
mediately started, in obedience to this order, and not 
choosing to remain alone, in a strange house, I concluded 
to follow the woman, and see the other people of this es- 
tate. When we reached the house of the overseer, the 
colored people were coming in from the field, and with 
them came the overseer, and another man, better dressed 
than overseers usually are. 

I stood at some distance from these gentlemen, not 
thinking it prudent to be too forward amongst strangers. 
The black people were all called together, and the overseer 
told them, that some one of them had stolen a fat hog 
from the pen, carried it to the woods, and there killed and 
dressed it ; that he had that day found the place, where 
the hog had been slaughtered, and that if they did not 
confess, and tell who the perpetrators of this theft were, 
they would all be whipped in the severest manner. To 
this threat, no other reply was made than a universal as- 
sertion of the innocence of the accused. They were all 
then ordered to lie down upon the ground, and expose 
their backs, to which the overseer applied the thong of his 
long whip, by turns, until he was weary. It was fortu- 
nate for these people, that they were more than twenty in 
number, which prevented the overseer from inflicting 
many lashes on any one of them. 

When the whole number had received, each in turn, 
a share of the lash, the overseer returned to the man, to 



818 THE ADVENTURES OF 

whom he had first applied the whip, and told him he was 
certain that he knew who stole the hog ; and that if he 
did not tell who the thief was, he would whip him all 
night. He then again applied the whip to the back of 
this man, until the blood flowed copiously ; but the sufferer 
hid his face in his hands, and said not a word. The other 
gentleman then asked the overseer, if he was confident 
this man had stolen the pig ; and receiving an affirmative 
answer, he said he would make the fellow confess the 
truth, if he would follow his directions. He then asked 
the overseer, if he had ever tried cat-hauling, upon an 
obstinate negro ; and was told that this punishment had 
been heard of, but never practised on this plantation. 

A boy was then ordered to get up, run to tbe house, 
and bring a cat, which was soon produced. The cat, 
which was a large grey tom-cat, was then taken by the 
well dressed gentleman, and placed upon the bare back of 
the prostrate black man, near the shoulders, and forcibly 
dragged by the tail down the back, and along the bare 
thighs of the sufferer. The cat sunk his nails into the 
flesh, and tore off pieces of the skin with his teeth. The 
man roared with the pain of this punishment, and would 
have rolled along the ground, had he not been held in his 
place by the force of four other slaves, each of whom con- 
fined a hand or a foot. As soon as the cat was drawn 
from him, the man said he would tell who stole the hog, 
and confessed that he, and several others, three of whom 
were then holding him, had stolen the hog, killed, dres- 
sed and eaten it. In return for this confession, the over- 
seer said he should have another touch of the cat, which 
was again drawn along his back, not as before, from the 
head downwards, but from below the hips to the head. 
The man was then permitted to rise, and each of those 



OHARLES BALL. 319 

who had been named by him, as a participator in stealing 
the hog, was compelled to lie down, and have the cat 
twice drawn along his back; first downwards, and then 
upwards. After the termination of this punishment, each 
of the sufferers was washed with salt water, by a black 
woman, and they were then all dismissed. This was the 
most excruciating punishment, that I ever saw inflicted on 
black people, and in my opinion, it is very dangerous; for 
the claws of the cat are poisonous, and wounds made by 
them are very subject to inflammation. 

During all this time, 1 had remained at the distance of 
fifty yards from the place of punishment, fearing either to 
advance or retreat, lest I too, might excite the indignation 
of these sanguinary judges. After the business was over, 
and my feelings became a little more composed, I thought 
the voice of the gentleman, in good clothes, was familiar 
to me ; but I could not recollect who he was, nor where 
I heard his voice, until the gentlemen at length left this 
place, and went towards the great house, and as they pas- 
sed me, I recognised in the companion of the overseer, my 
old master, the negro trader, who had 'bought me in 
Maryland, and brought me to Carolina. ' 

I afterwards learned from my master, that this man 
had formerly been engaged in the African slave trade, 
which he had given up some years before, for the safer 
and less arduous business of buying negroes in the North, 
and bringing them to the South, as articles of merchan- 
dize, in which he had acquired a very respectable fortune 
— ^had lately married in a wealthy family, in this part of 
the country, and was a great planter. 

Two days after this, we reached Savannah, where my 
master sold his cotton, and purchased a wagon load of 
sugar, molasses, coffee, shoes,*dry goods, and such articles 



820 THE ADVENTURES OF 

as we stood in need of at home ; and on the next day 
after I entered the city, I again left it, and directed my 
course up the country. In Savannah, I saw many black 
men, who were slaves, and who yet acted as freemen, bo 
far, that they went out to work, where, and with whom 
they pleased, received their own wages, and provided their 
own subsistence ; but were obliged to pay a certain sum 
at the end of each week, to their masters; One of these 
men told me, that he paid six dollars on every Saturday 
evening, to his master ; and yet he was comfortably dres- 
sed, and appeared to live well. Savannah was a very 
busy place, and I saw vast quantities of cotton, piled up 
on the wharves ; but the appearance of the town itself, 
was not much in favor of the people who lived in it. 

On my way home, I travelled for several days, by a 
road, different from that which we had pursued in coming 
down; and at the distance of fifty or sixty miles from 
Savannah, I passed by the largest plantation that I had 
ever seen. I think I saw at least a thousand acres of 
cotton in one field, which was all as level as a bowling- 
green. There were, as I was told, three hundred and 
fifty hands at work in this field, picking the last of the 
cotton from the burs; and these were the most miserable 
looking slaves that I had seen in all my travels. 

It was now the depth of winter, and although the 
weather was not cold, yet it was the winter of this climate; 
and a man who lives on the Savannah river a few years, 
will find himself almost as much oppressed with cold, in 
winter there, as he would be in the same season of the 
year, on the banks of the Potomac, if he had always resi- 
ded there. 

These people were, as far as I could sec, totally without 
shoes; and there was no stch garment, as a hat of any 






CHARLES CALL. 321 

kind amongst tliem. Each person had a coarse blanket, 
which had holes cut for the arms to pass through, and the 
top was drawn up round the neck, so as to form a sort of 
loose frock, tied before with strings. The arms, when 
the people were at work, were naked, and some of them 
had very little clothing of any kind, besides this blanket 
Irock. The appearance of these people afforded the 
most conclusive evidence that they were not eaters of 
pork, and that lent lasted with them throughout the year. 
I again staid all night, as I went home, with the gentleman 
whom I have before noticed as the friend of my master, 
who had left me soon after we quitted Savannah, and I 
feaw him no more until I reached home. 

Soon after my return from Savannah, an affair of a 
very melancholy character took place in the neighborhood 
of my master's plantation. About two miles from (3ur 
residence lived a gentleman who was a bachelor, and ^rho 
had for his housekeeper a mulatto woman. The master 
was a young man, not more than twenty -five years old, 
antl the housekeeper must have been at least forty. She 
had children grown up, one of whom had been sold by 
his master, the father of the bachelor, since I lived here, 
and carried away to the west. This woman had acquired 
an unaccountable influence over her young master, who 
lived with her as his wife, and gave her the entire com- 
mand of his house and of everything about it. Before h^. 
came to live where he now did, and whilst he still resided 
with his father, to whom the woman belonged, the old 
gentleman, perceiving the attachment of his son to this 
female, had sold her to a trader, who was on his way to 
the Mississippi river, in the absence of the young man. 
But when the latter returned home, and learned what bad 
been done, he immediatelj'set off in pursuit of the purohn- 



iJ22 auE Al>VENTUliES OF 

ser, overtook him somewhere in the Incliau territory^ aiid 
bought the woman of him at an advanced price. He then 
brought her back, and put her^, as his housekeeper, on the 
place where he now lived; left his father, and came to 
reside in person with the woman. 

On a plantation adjoining that of the gentleman bach- 
elor, lived a planter, who owned a young mulatto man^ 
named Frank, not more than twenty- four or five years old^ 
a very smart as well as handsome fellow. Frank had be- 
come as much enamored of this woman, who was old 
enough to have been his mother, as well as her master, as the 
bachelor was; and she returned Frank's attachment^ to 
the prejudice of her owner. Frank was in the practice 
of visiting hie mistress at night; a circumstance of which 
her master was su&picious, and forbade Frank from coming 
to the house. This only heightened the flame that waa 
burning in the bosoms of the lovers; and they resolved, after • 
many and long deliberations, to destroy the master. She 
projected the plot, and furnished the means for the mur- 
der, by taking her master's gun from the place where he 
usually kept it, and giving it to Frank, who came to the 
hou-se in the evening when the gentleman was taking his • 
supper alone. 

Lucy always waited upon her master at his meals, and 
knowing his usual place of sitting, had made a hole be- 
tween two of the logs of the house, towards which she kncAv 
his back would be at supper. At a given signal, Frank 
came cjuietly up to the house, levelled the gun through 
the hole prepared for him, and discharged a load of buck- 
shot between the shoulders of the unsuspecting master, 
who sprang from his seat and fell dead beside the table. 

This murder was not known in the neighborhood until 
the next morning, when the woman herself went to a 



CHARLES BALI;, 32B 

house on an adjoining plantation, ancV' told it. The mur- 
dered gentleman had several other slaves, none of whom 
were at home at the time of his death, except one man; 
and he was so terrified that he was afraid to run and 
alarm the neighborhood. I knew this man well, and 
believe he was afraid of the woman and her accomplice. 
I never had any doubt of his innocence, though he suffered 
a punishment, upon no other evidence than mere suspi- 
cion^ far more terrible than any ordinary form of death. 

As soon as the murder was known to the neighboring 
gentlemen, they hastened to visit the dead body, and were 
no less expeditious in instituting inquiries after those who 
had done the bloody deed. My master was amongst the first 
who arrived at the house of the deceased; and in a short 
time half the slaves of the neighboring plantations were 
arrested, and brought to the late dwelling of the dead 
man. For my own part, from the moment I heard of the 
murder, I had ho doubt of its author. 

Silence is a great virtue when it is dangerous to speak; 
and I had long since determined never to advance opin- 
ions uncalled for, in controversies between the white peo- 
ple and the slaves. Many witnesses were examined by a 
justice of the peace, before the coroner arrived; but after 
the coming of the latter, a jury was called, and more than 
half a day was spent in asking questions of various black 
people, without the disclosure of any circumstance which 
tended to fix the guilt of the murder upon any one. My 
master, who was present all this time, at last desired them 
to examine me, if it was thought that my testimony could 
be of any service in the matter, as he wished me to go 
home to attend to my work. I was sworn on the testa- 
ment to tell the whole truth; and stated at the commence- 
ment of the testimony, that I believed Frank and Lucy 



4 

324 THE ADVENTURES OF 

to be the murderers, and proceeded to assign the reasons 
upon which my opinion was founded. Frank had nat 
been present at this examination^ and Lucy, who had been 
sworn, had said she knew nothing of the matter; that at 
the time her master was shot, she had gone into the kitch- 
en for some milk for his supper, and that on hearing the 
gun she had come into the room, at the moment he fell to 
the floor and expired; but when she opened the door and 
looked out, she could neither hear nor see any one. 

"When Frank was brought in and made to touch tho 
dead body, which he was compelled. to do, because some 
said that if he was the murderer, the corpse would bleed 
at his touch, he trembled so much, that I thought he 
would fall, but no blood issued from the wound of the 
dead man. This compulsory touching of the dead had, 
however, in this instance, a much more powerful effect, in 
the conviction of the criminal, than the flowing of any 
quantity of blood could have had; for "as soon as Fnink had 
withdrawn his hand from tM touch of the dead, the coro- 
ner asked him, in a peremptory tone, as if conscious of the 
fact, why he had done this. Frank was so confounded 
with fear, and overwhelmed by this interrogatory, that he 
lost all self-possession, and cried out in a voice of despair, 
that Lucy had made him do it. 

Lucy, who had left the room when Frank was brought 
in, was now recalled, and confronted with her partner in 
guilt; but nothing could ring a word of confession from 
her. She persisted, that if Frank had murdered her mas- 
ter, he had done it of his own accord, and without her 
knowledge or advice. Some one flow, for the first time, 
thought of making search for the gun of the dead man, 
which was not found in the place where he usually had 
kept it. Frank said he had committed the crime with this 



i 



CHILES BALL. 325 

gun, which had becii^'^aced ia his hands by Lucjc 
Frank, Lucy, and Billy, a black man, against whom there 
was no evidence, nor cause of suspicion, except that he 
was in the kitchen at the time of the murder j were com- 
mitted to prison in a new log house on an adjoining planta- 
tion, closely confined in irons, and kept there a little more 
than two weeks, when they were all tried before some 
gentlemen of the neighborhood; who held a court for that 
purpose. Lucy and Frank were condemned to be hung; 
but Billy was found not guilty; although he was not 
released, but kept in confinement until the execution of his 
companions, which took phice tea days after the trial. 

On the moriaing of the execution, my master told me, 
and all the rest of the people, -that we must go to the 
hanging, as it was termed by him as well as others. The 
place of punishment was only two miles from my master's 
residence, and I was there in time to get a good stana^ 
near the gallows' tree, by which I was enabled to see all 
the proceedings connected with this solemn affair. It was 
estimated by my master, that there were at least fifteen 
thousand people present at this scene, more than half of 
whom were blacks; all the masters, for a great distance 
round the country; having permitted, or compelled, their 
.people to come to this hanging. 

Billy was brought to the gallows with Lucy and Frank, 
l3ut was permitted to walk beside the cart in which they 
code. Under the gallows, after the rope was around htr: 
neck, Lucy confessed that the murder had been designed 
^by her, in the first place, and that Frank had only perpe- 
trated it at her instance. She said she had at first intended 
to apply to Billy to assist her in the undertaking, but 
had afterwards communicated her designs to Frank, who 
offered to shoot her master, if she would supply him 
Bl* 



320 THE ADYENTURFS OF 

with a guD; and let no other person be in the secret. 
A long sermon was preached by a white man under 
the gallows, which was only the limb of a tree, and after- 
Ys'ards an exhortation was delivered by a black man. The 
two convicts were hung together, and after they were 
quite dead, a consultation was held among the gentlemen 
as to the future disposition of Billy, who, having been in 
the house when his master was murdered, and not havinfy 
given immediate informEition of the fact, was held to be 
guilty of concealing the death, and was accordingly sen- 
tenced to receive five hundred lashes, I was in the branch- 
es of a tree 'close by the place where the court was held, 
and distinctly heai'd its proceedings and judgment. Some 
went to the woods to cut hickories, whilst others stripped 
Billy and tied him to a tree. More than twenty long 
switches, some of them six or seven feet in length, had 
been procured, and two men applied the rods at the same 
time, one standing on each side of tlie culprit, one of them 
using his left hand. 

I had often seen black men whipped, and had always, 
when the lash was applied with great severity, heard the 
fiuiferer cry out and beg for mercy; but in this case the 
pain inflicted by the double blows of the hickory was so 
intense, that Billy never uttered so much as a groan; and 
1 do not believe that he breathed for the space of two 
minutes after he received the first strokes. He shrank 
his body close to the trunk of tree, around v/hich his arms 
and legs were lashed, drew his shoulders up to his head 
like a dying man, and trembled, or rather shivered, in all 
his niembers. The blood flowed from the commencement, 
and in a few minutes lay in small puddles at the root of 
the tree. I saw flakes of flesh as long as my finger fall 
cut of the gashes in his back; and T believe he was insen- 



CHARLES BALL. 827 

sible during all the time he was receiving the last two 
hundred lashes. When the whole five hundred lashes had 
been counted, by the person appointed to perform this 
duty, the half dead body was unbound, and laid in the 
shade of the tree upon which I sat. The gentlemen who 
had done the whipping, eight or ten in number, being 
joined by their friends, then came under the tree, and 
drank punch until their dinner was made ready, under a 
booth of green boughs at a short distance. 

After dinner Billy, who had been groaning on the 
ground where he was laid, was taken up, placed in the 
cayt in which Lucy and Frank had been brought to the 
gallows, and conveyed to the dwelling of his late master, 
where he was confined to the house and to his bed more 
than three months, and was never worth much afterwards, 
while I remained in Greorgia. 

Lucy and Frank, after they had been half an hour upon 
the gallows, were cut down, and suffered to drop into a 
deep whole that had been dug under them whilst they 
were suspended. As they fell, so the earth was thrown 
upon them, and the grave closed over them forever. 

They were hung on Thursday, and the vast assemblage 
of people, that had convened -to witness their death, did 
not leave the place altogether until the next Monday 
morning. Wagons, carts, and carriages had been brought 
upon the ground; booths and tens erected for the conve- 
niece and accommodation of the multitude; and the ter- 
rible spectacles I have just described, were succeeded by 
music, dancing, trading in horses, drinking, fighting, and 
every other species of amusement and excess to which the 
southern people are addicted. 

I had to work in the day-time, but went every night to 
witness this funeral carnival, the numbers that joined m 



328 THE ADVENTURES OF 

which appeared to increase, rather than diminish, no the 
Friday and Saturday that followed the execution. It was 
not until Sunday afternoon, that the crowd began sensibly 
to diminish, and on Monday morning, after breakfast time, 
the last wagons left the ground, now trampled into dust 
as dry and as light as ashes, and the grave of the murder- 
ers was left to the solitude of the woods. 

Certainly those who were hanged well deserved their 
punishment ; but it was a very arbitrary exercise of power 
to whip a man until he was insensible, because he did not 
prevent a murder which was committed without his 
knowledge ; and I could not understand the right of pun- 
ishing him, because he was so weak or timorous as to 
refrain from the disclosure of the crime, the moment it 
came to his knowledge. 

It ifi necessary for the southern people to be vigilant in 
guarding the moral condition of their slaves, and even to 
punish the intention to commit crimes, when that intention 
can be clearly proved; for such is the natural relation of 
master and slave, in by far the greater number of cases, 
that no cordiality of feeling can ever exist between them ; 
and the sentiments that bind together the different mem- 
bers of society in a state of freedom and social equality, 
being absent, the master must resort to principles of 
physical restraint, and rules of mental coercion, unknown 
in another and a different condition of the. social compact. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the southern planters 
could ever retain their property, or live amongst their 
slaVes, if those slaves were not kept in terror of the pun- 
ishment that would follow acts of violence and disorder. 
There is no difference between the feelings of the different 
races of men, so far as their personal rights are concerned. 
The black man is as anxious to possess and enjoy liberty 



CHARLES BALL. 329 

as the white one would be, were he deprived of this ines- 
timable blessing. It is not for me to say that the one is 
as well qualified for the enjoyment of liberty as the other. 
Low ignorance, moral degradation of character, and mental 
depravity, are inseperable companions ; and in the breast 
of an ignorant man, the passions of envy and revenge hold 
unbridled dominion. 

It was in the month of April, that I witnessed the 
painful spectacle of two fellow creatures being launched 
into the abyss of eternity; and a third being tortured 
beyond the sufi"erings of mere death, not for his crimes ; 
but as a terror to others ; and this, not to deter others 
from the commission of crimes, but to stimulate them to 
a more active and devoted performance of their duties to 
their owners. My spirits had not recovered from the de- 
pression produced by that scene, in which my feelings had 
been awakened in the cause of others, when I was called 
to a nearer and more immediate apprehension of suffer- 
ings, which I now too clearly saw, v/ere in preparation for 
myself. 

My master's health became worse continually; and I 
expected he would not survive this summer. In this, 
however, I was disappointed ; but he was so ill, that he 
was seldom able to come to the field ; and paid but little 
attention to his plantation, or the culture of his crops. 
He left the care of the cotton field to me, after the month 
of June, and was not again out on the plantation before 
the following October ; when he one day came out on a 
little Indian pony, that he had used as his hackney, before 
he was so far reduced, as to decline the practice of riding. 
I suffered very much this summer, for want of good and 
gubctantial provisions ; my master bei^g no longer able to 
supply me with his usual liberality, from Ms owu meat 



330 THE adveatures of 

house. I was obliged to lay out nearly all my other earn- 
ings, in the course of the summer, for bacon, to enable 
me to bear the hardships and toil to which I was exposed. 
My master often sent for me to come to the house, and 
talked to me in a very kind manner; and I believe, that 
no hired overseer could have carried on the business more 
industriously than T did, until the crop was secured the 
next winter. 

Soon after my master was in the field, in October, he 
sent for me to come to him one day, and gave me, on 
parting, a pretty good great coat, of strong drab cloth, 
almost new, which he said would be of service to me in 
the coming winter. He also gave me, at the same time, 
a pair of boots which he had worn half out ; but the legs 
of which, were quite good. This great coat and these 
boots, were afterwards, of great service to me^ 

As the winter came on, my master grew worse, and 
though he still continued to walk about the house in good 
weather, it was manifest that he was approaching the close 
of his earthly existence. I worked very hard this winter. 
The crop of cotton was heavy, and we did not get it all 
out of the field, until some time after Christmas, which 
compelled me to work hard myself, and cause my fellow 
slaves to work hard too, in clearing the land that my mas- 
ter was bound to clear every year on this place. He de- 
sired me to get as much of the land cleared, in time for 
cotton, as I could^ and to plant the rest with corn when 
cleared ofi". 

As I was now intrusted with the entire superintendence 
of the plantation, by my master, who never left his house, 
it became necessary for me to assume the authority of au 
overseer, of my fellow slaves, and I not unfrequently 
found it necessary to punish them with stripes, to compel 



CHARLES CALL. S31 

them to perform their work. At first, I felt much repug- 
nance, against the use of the hickory, the only instrument 
with which I punished offenders; but the longer I was 
accustomed to this practice, the moje familiar, and less 
offensive it became to me, and I believe, that a few years 
of perseverance and experience, would have made me as 
inveterate a negro driver, as any in Georgia; though I 
feei conscious that I should never have become so hardened 
as to strip a person, for the purpose of whipping, nor 
should I ever have consented to compel people to work, 
without a sufficiency of good food, if I had it in my power 
to supply them with enough of this fii'st of comforts. 

In the month of February, my master became so weak, 
and his cough was so distressing, that he took to his bed, 
from which he never again departed, save only once, 
before the time when he was removed to be wrapped in 
his winding sheet. In the month of March, two of the 
brothers of my mistress came to see her, and remained 
with her until after the death of my master. 

When they had been with their sister about three 
weeks, they came to the kitchen one day, when I had 
came in for my dinner, and told me that they were going 
to whip me. I asked them what they were going to whip 
me for ? to which they replied, that they thought a good 
whipping would be good for me, and that at any rate, I 
must prepare to take it. My mistress now joined us, and 
after swearing at me in the most furious manner, for a 
space of several minutes, and bestowing upon me a multi- 
tude of the coarsest epithets, told me, that she had long 
owed me a whipping, and that I should now get it. 

She then ordered me to take off my shirt, (the only 
garment I had on, except a pair of old tow linen trousers,) 
and the two brothers backed the command of their sister, 



332 THE ADVE^^'TUr.ES OF 

the one by preseuting a pistol at my breast, and the other 
bv drawing a large club over his head, in the attitude of 
striking me. Resistance was vain, and I was forced to 
yield. My shirt being off, I was tied by the hands with 
a stout bed-cord, and being led to a tree, called the Pride 
of China, that grew in the yard, my hands were drawn by 
the rope being passed over a limb, until my feet no longer 
touched the ground. Being thus suspended in the air, by 
the rope, and my whole weight hanging on my wrists, I 
was unable to move any part of my person, except my feet 
and legs, I had never been whipped since I was a boy ; 
and felt the injustice of the present proceeding, with, the 
utmost keenness; but neither justice nor my feelings, had 
any influence upon the hearts of my mistress and her 
brothers, two men as cruel in temper, and as savage in 
manners, as herself. 

The first strokes of the hickory, produced a sensation 
that I can only liken to streams of scalding water, run- 
ning along my back ; but after a hundred, or hundred 
and fifty lashes, had been showered upon me, the pain 
became less acute and piercing, but was succeeded by a 
dead and painful aching, which seemed to extend to my 
very back bone. 

As I hung by the rope, the moving of my legs some- 
times caused me to turn round, and soon after they began 
to beat me, I saw the pale and death-like figure of my 
master standing at the door, when my face was turned 
toward the house, and heard him, in a faint voice, scarcely 
louder than a strong breathing, commanding his brothers- 
in-law, to let me go. These commands were disregarded, 
until I had received full three hundred lashes ; and doubt- 
lessly, more would have been inflicted upon me, had not 
my master, with an effort beyond his strength, by the aid 



CHARLES BALL. 333 

of a stick, on which he supported himself, made his way 
to me, and placing his skeleton form beside me, as I hung, 
told his brothers-in-law, that if they struck another stroke, 
he would send for a lawyer, and have them both prosecu- 
ted at law. This interposition stopped the progress of my 
punishment, and after cutting me down, they carried my 
master again into the house. I was yet able to walk, and 
went into the kitchen, whither my mistress followed, and 
compelled me to submit to be washed in brine, by a black 
woman, who acted as her cook. I was then permitted to 
put my shirt on, and to go to my bed. 

This was Saturday, and on the next day, when I awoke 
late in the morning, I found myself unable to turn over, 
or to rise. I felt too indignant at the barbarity with 
which I had been treated, to call for help from any one, 
and lay in my bed, made of corn husks, until after twelve 
o'clock, when my mistress came to me and asked me how 
I was. A slave must not manifest feelings of resentment ; 
and I answered with humility, that I was very sore, and 
unable to get up. She then called a man and a woman, 
who came and raised me up ; but I now found that my 
shirt was as fast to my back, as if it had grown there. 
The blood and bruised flesh, having become incorporated 
with the substance of the linen, it formed only the outer 
coat of the great scab that covered my back. 

After I was down stairs, my mistress had me washed in 
warm water ; and warm grease was rubbed over my back 
and sides, until the shirt was saturated with oil, and be- 
coming soft, was^t length separated from my back. My 
mistress then had my back washed and greased, and put 
upon me, one of my master's old linen shirts. She had 
become alarmed, and was fearful, either that I should die, 
or would not be able to work again, for a long time. As 
CI 



334 THE ADVENTURES Of 

it was, she lost a month of luy labor at this time, and in 
the end, she lost myself, in consequence of this whipping. 

As soon as I was able to walk, my master sent for me, 
to come to his bedside, and told me that he was very sorry 
for what had happened; that it was not his fault, and 
that if he had been well, 1 should never have been touched. 
Tears came in his eyes as he talked to me, and said, that 
as he could not live long, he hoped I would continue faith- 
ful to him whilst he did live. This I promised to do, for 
I really loved my master ; but I had already determined, 
that as soon as he was in his grave, I would attempt to 
escape from Georgia, and the cotton country, if my life 
should be the forfeiture of the attempt. 

As soon as I had recovered of my wounds, I again went 
to work ; not in my former situation of superintendent of 
my master's plantation, for this place was now occupied 
by one of the brothers of my mistress, but in the woods, 
where my mistress had determined to clear a new field. 
After this time, I did nothing but grub and clear land, 
while I remained in Georgia ; but I was always making 
preparations for my departure from that country. 

My master was an of&ccr of the militia, and had a 
sword, which he wore on parade days, and at other times 
he hung it up in the room where he slept. I conceived 
an idea, that this sword would be of service to me, in the 
long journey that I intended to undertake. One evening, 
when I had gone in to see my master, and had remained 
standing at his bed side some time, he closed his eyes as 
if going to sleep, and it being twilight, I slipped the 
sword from the place where it hung, and dropped it out of 
the window. I knew my master could never need this 
weapon again, but, yet I felt some compunction of con- 
science, at the thought of robbing so good a man. When 



CHARLES BALL. 335 

I left the room, I took up the sword, and afterwards secre- 
ted it in a hollow tree, in the woods, near the place at 
which I worked daily. 



CHAPTER XX. 

My master died in the month of May, and I followed 
him to his grave, with a heavy heart ; for I felt that I 
had lost the only friend I had in the world, who possessed 
at once, the power and the inclination to protect me 
against the tyranny and oppression, to which slaves, on a 
cotton plantation, are subject. 

Had he lived, I should have remained with him, and 
never have left him, for he had promised to purchase the 
residue of my time of my owners in Carolina ; but when 
he was gone, I felt the parting of the last tie that bound 
ine to the place where I then was, and my heart yearned 
for my wife and children, from whom I had now been 
separated more than four years. 

I held my life in small estimation, if it was to be worn 
out under the dominion of ray mistress and her brothers, 
though, since the death of my master, she had greatly 
meliorated my condition, by giving me frequent allowan- 
ces of meat and other necessaries. I believe she enter- 
tained some vague apprehensions that I might run away, 
and betake myself to the woods for a living, perhaps go 
to the Indians; but I do not think she ever suspected that 
I would hazard the untried undertaking of attempting to 
make my way back to Maryland, My purpose was fixed, 



330 THE ADVENTURES OF 

and now nothing could shake it. I only waited for a 
proper season of the year to commence my toilsome and 
dangerous journey. As I must, of necessity, procure my 
own subsistence on my march, it behooved me to pay 
regard to the time at which I took it up. 

I furnished myself with a fire-box, as it is called, that 
is, a tin case containing flints, steel and tinder, this I con- 
sidered indispensable. I took the great coat that my mas- 
ter had given me, and with a coarse needle and thread, 
quilted a scabbard of old cloth in one side of it, in which 
I could put my sword and carry it with safety. I also 
procured a small bag of linen that held more than a peck. 
This bag I filled with the meal of parched corn, grinding 
the corne after it was parched in the woods where I 
worked, at the mill at night. These operations, except 
the grinding of the corn, I carried on in a small conical 
cabin that I had built in the woods. The boots that my 
master gave me, I had repaired by a Spaniard who lived 
in the neighborhood, and followed the business of a cob- 
bler. 

Before the first of August, I had all my preparations 
completed, and had matured them with so much secrecy, 
that no one in the country, white or black, suspected me 
of entertaining any extraordinary design. I only waited 
for the corn to be ripe, and fit to be roasted, which time I 
had fixed as the period of my departure. I watched the 
progress of the corn daily, and on the eighth of August I 
perceived, on examining my mistress' field, that nearly 
half of the ears were so far grown, that by roasting them, 
a man could easily subsist himself; and as I knew that 
this corn had been planted later than the most of the corn 
in the country, I resolved to take leave of the plantation 
and its tenants, for ever, on the next day. 



CHARLES BALL. 387 

I had a faithful dog, called Trueman, and this poor 
animal had been my constant companion for more than 
four years, without ever showing cowardice or infidelity, 
but once, and that was when the panther followed us from 
the woods, I was accordingly anxious to bring my dog 
with me; but as I knew the success of my undertaking 
depended on secrecy and silence, I thought it safest to 
abandon my last friend, and engage in my perilous enter- 
prise alone. On the morning of the ninth, I went to 
work as usual, carrying my dinner with me, and worked 
diligently at grubbing; until about one o'clock in the day. 
I now sat down and took my last dinner as the slave of 
my mistress, dividing the contents of my basket with my 
dog. After I had finished, I tied my dog with a rope to 
a small tree ; I set my gun against it, for I thought I 
should be better without the gun than with it; tied my 
knapsack, with my bag of meal on my shoulders, and then 
turned to take a last farewell of my poor dog, that stood 
by the tree to whish he was bound, looking wistfully at 
me. When I approached him, he licked my hands, and 
then rising on his hind feet, and placing his fore paws on 
my breast, he uttered a long howl, which thrilled through 
my heart, as if he had said, ''My master, do not leave me 
behind you.'' All the affection that the poor animal had 
testified for me, in the course of his life, now rose fresh in 
my memory. I recollected that he had always been ready 
to lay down his life for me ; that when I was tied and 
bound to the tree to be whipped, they were forced to 
compel me to order my dog to be quiet, to prevent him 
from attacking my executioner in my defence ; and even 
when he fled from the panther, he had not left me, only 
advancing a few feet before me, and beckoning me to fly 
from an enemy whose strength was too great for us to 
CI* 



338 THE ADVENTURES OF 

contend against, with hope of success; and I now felt 
ai3sured, that had the panther attacked me, my dog would 
have conquered at my side, or have died in defending me. 
This was the first time that I had ever tied him. I had 
often left him for a whole day to guard my coat, mj bas- 
ket or my gun, which he never deserted; and he now 
seemed to feel that I charged him with ingratitude and 
infidelity, when I bound him to a charge which I had 
never known him to forsake. As I was now leaving my 
dog for ever, I talked to him as to a creature that under- 
stood language, and was sensible of the dangers I was 
going to meet. 

"Poor Truemau, faithful Trueman, fare thee well. 
Thou hast been an honest dog, and sure friend to thy 
master in all his shades of fortune. When my basket 
was well filled, how cheerfully we have partaken together 
of its contents. I did not then upbraid thee, that thou 
atest in idleness, the proceeds of my labor, for I knew that 
thy heart was devoted to thy protector. In the day of 
my adversity, when all the world had forsaken me, when 
my master was dead, and I had no friend to protect me, 
still, poor Trueman thou wert the same. Thou laidest 
thyself down at my feet when the world had united to 
oppress me. How often, when I was sick, and the fever 
raged in my veins, didst thou come at the going down of 
the sun, and lick my feet in token of thy faith ; and how 
patiently didst thou watch with thy poor master through 
the long and lonely night. 

"When I had no crumbs in my basket to give thee, 
nor a crust in my pocket to divide with thee, thy faithful 
heart failed not; and a glance from the eye of thy hun- 
gry master filled thee with gratitude and joy. Poor dog, 
I must bid thee farewell. To-morrow they will come and 



CHARLES BALL. 839 

release thee. Perhaps they will hate thee for my sake, 
and persecute thee as they have persecuted me; but I 
leave thee my gun, to secure thee protection at the hands of 
those who will be the arbiters of thy fate when I am gone. 
It is all the legacy I can give; and surely they will not 
kill so good a dog, when they see him possessed of so 
true a gun. Man is selfish, and heartless — the richest of 
them all are as wretched slaves as I am, and are only 
minions of fear and avarice. Could pride and ambition 
witness thy fidelity and gratitude to thy forsaken master, 
and learn humility from thy example, how many tears 
would be wiped from the eyes of sorrow. Follow the new 
master who shall possess my gun, and may he be as kind 
to thee, as thou hast been faithful to me.'' 

I now took to the forest, keeping, as nearly as I could, 
a north course all the afternoon. Night overtook me be- 
fore I reached any water-course, or any other object wor- 
thy of being noticed; and I lay down and slept soundly ^ 
without kindling a fire or eating anything. I was awake 
before day, and as soon as there was light enough to ena- 
ble me to see my way, I resumed my journey, and walked 
on until about eight o'clock, when I came to a river, 
which I knew must be the Appalachie. I sat down on the 
bank of the river, opened my bag of meal, and made my 
breakftist of a part of its contents. I used my meal very 
sparingly, it being the most valuable treasure that I now 
possessed, though I had in my pocket three Spanish dol- 
lars; but in my situation this money could not avail mo 
anything, as I was resolved not to show myself to any 
person, either white or black. 

After taking my breakfast I prepared to cross the river, 
which was here about a hundred yards wide, with a slug- 
gish and deep current. The morning was sultry, and the 



340 THE ADVENTURES OF 

tllicl^et^^ along the ranvgiii of the river teemed witli inseet;^ 
and reptiles. By sounding tlic river with a pole, I found 
the stream too deep to be waded, and I therefore prepared 
to swim it. For this purpose, I stripped myself, and 
bound my clothes on top of my knapsack, and my bag of 
meal on top of my clothes; then drawing my knapsack 
close up to my head, I threw myself into the river. In 
my youth I had learned to swim in the Patuxent, and 
have seldom ever met with any person who was more at 
ease in deep water than myself. I kept a straight line 
from the the place of my entrance into the Appalachie to 
the 'opposite side, and when I reached it, stepped on the 
margin of the land, and turned round to view the place 
from which I had set out on my aquatic passage; but my eye 
was arrested by an object nearer to me than the opposite 
shore. Within twenty feet of me, in the very line that I 
had pursued in crossing the river, a large alligator was 
moving in full pursuit of me, with his nose just above 
the surface, in the position that creature takes when he 
gives chase to his intended prey in the water. The alli- 
gator can swim more than twice as fast as a man, for he 
can overtake young ducks on the water; and had I been ten 
seconds longer in the river, I should have been dragged 
to 'the bottom, and never again been heard of. Seeing 
that I had gained the shore, my pursuer turned, made 
two or three circles in the wator, and then disappeared. 

I received this admonition as a warning of the dangers 
that I must encounter in my journey to the north. After 
adjusting my clothes, I again took to the woods, and bore 
a little to the east of north ; it now being my determination 
to turn down the country, so as to gain the line of roads 
by which I had come to the south. I travelled all day in 
the woods; but a short time before sundown, came within 



CIIARLEg BALL. 841 

view of an opening in the forest^ which I took to be 
cleared fields; but upon a closer examination, finding no 
fences or other enclosures around it, I advanced into it, 
and found it to be an open savannah, with a small stream 
of water creeping slowly through it. At the lower side 
of the open space were the remains of an old beaver dam, 
the central part of which had been broken away by the 
current of the stream, at the time of some flood. Around 
the margin of this former pond I observed several decayed 
beaver lodges, and numerous stumps of small trees, that 
had been cut down for the food or fortification of this 
industrious little nation, which had fled at the approach of 
the white man, and all its people were now, like me seek- 
ing refuge in the deepest solitudes of the forest, from the 
glance of every human eye. * 

As it was growing late, and I believed I must now be 
near the settlements, I determined to encamp for the night 
beside this old beaver dam. I again took my supper from 
my bag of meal, and made my bed for the night, amongst 
the canes that grew in the place. This night I slept but 
little, for it seemed as if all the owls in the country had 
assembled in my neighborhood, to perform a grand musi- 
cal concert. Their hooting and chattering commenced 
soon after dark, and continued until the dawn of day. In 
all parts of the southern country, the owls are very numer- 
ous, especially along the margins of streams, and in the 
low grounds, with which the waters are universally bor- 
dered; but since I had been in the country, although I had 
passed many nights in the woods, at all seasons of the 
year, T had never before heard so clamorous and deafening 
a chorus of nocturnal music. 

With the coming morning, I arose from my couch, and 
proceeded warily along the woods, keeping a continual 



342 THE ADVENTURES OF 

look-out for plantations, and listening attentively to every 
noise that I heard in the trees, or amongst the canebrakes. 
When tlie sun had been up two or three hours, I saw an 
appearance of blue sky, at a distance, through the trees, 
which proved that the forest had been removed from a spot 
somewhere before me, and at no great distance from me; 
and, as I cautiously advanced, I heard the voices of people 
in loud conversation. Sitting down amongst the palmetto 
plants that grew around me in great numbers, I soon per- 
ceived that the people, whose conversation I heard, were 
coming nearer to me. I now 'heard the sound of horses 
feet, and, immediately afterwards, saw two men on horse- 
back, with rifles on their shoulders, riding through the 
woods, and moving on a line that led them past me, at a 
distance of about fifty or sixty yards. Perceiving that 
these men were equipped as hunters, I remained almost 
breathless, for the purpose of hearing their conversation. 
When they came so near that I could distinguish their 
words, they were talking of the best place of taking a 
stand, for the purpose of seeing the deer; from which I 
inferred, that they had sent men to some other point, for ■ 
the purpose of rousing the deer with dogs. After they 
had passed that point of their way that was nearest to me, 
and were beginnig to recede from me, one of them asked 
the other if he had heard that a negro had run away, the 
day before yesterday, in Morgan county; to which his 
companion answered in the negative. The first then said 
he had seen an advertisement at the store, which ofl'ered 
a hundred dollars reward for the the runaway, whose 
name was Charles. The conversation of the horsemen 
was now interrupted by the cry of hounds, at a distance 
in the woods, and heightening the speed of their horses, 
they were soon out of my sight and hearing. 



CUAKLES BALL. 343 

Information of the state of the country through which 
I was travelling, was of the highest value to me; and 
nothing could more nearly interest me than the knowl- 
edge of the fact that my flight was known to the white 
people, who resided round about and before me. It*was 
now necessary for me to become doubly vigilant, and to 
concert with myself measures of the highest moment. 

The first resolution I took was, that I would travel no 
more in the day time. This was the season of hunting 
deer, and knowing that the hunters were under the neces- 
sity of being as silent as possible in the woods, I saw at a 
glance that they would be at least as likely to discover me 
in the forest, before I could see them, as I should be to see 
them, before I myself would be seen. 

I was now very hungry, but exceedingly loath to make 
any further breaches on my bag of meal, except in ex- 
treme necessity. Feeling confident that there was a plan- 
tation within a few rods of me, I was anxious to have a 
view of itj in the hope that I might find a cornfield upon 
it, from which I could obtain a supply of roasting ears. 
Fearful to stand upright, I crept along through the low 
ground, where I then was, at times raising myself to my 
knees, for the purpose of obtaining a better view of things 
about me. In this way I advanced until I came in view 
of a high fence, and beyond this saw cotton, tall and 
flourishing, but no sign of corn. I crept up close to the 
fence, where I found the trunk of a large tree, that had 
been felled in clearing the field ; standing upon this, and 
looking over the plantation, I saw the tassels of corn, 
at the distance of half a mile, growing in a field that was 
bordered by the wood in which I stood. 

It was now nine or ten o'clock in the morning, and as I 
had slept but little the night before, I crept into the 



344 THE ADVENTURES OF 

busheS; great numbers of which grew in and about the top 
of the fallen tree, and hungry as I was, fell asleep. When 
I awoke it appeared to me, from the position of the sun, 
which I had carefully noted before I lay down, to be 
abo^t one or two o'clock. As this was the time of the 
day when the heat is most oppressive, and when every 
one was most likely to be absent from the forest, I again 
moved, and taking a circuitous route, some distance from 
the fields, again reached the fence opposite the cornfield, 
without having met with anything to alarm me. Having 
cautiously examined everything around me, as well by the 
eye as by "the ear, and finding all quiet, I ventured to 
cross the fence, and pluck from the standing stalks about 
a dozen good ears of corn, with which I stole back to the 
thicket in safety. This corn was of no use to me without 
fire to roast it; and it was equally dangerous to kindle 
fire by night as by da}^, the light at one time, and the 
smoke at another, might betray me to those who I knew 
were ever ready to pursue and arrest me, 

'^Hunger eats through stone walls,'' says the proverb; 
and an empty stomach is a petitioner, whose solicitations 
cannot be refused, if there is any thing to satisfy them 
with. Having regained the woods in safety, 1 ventured 
to go as far as the side of a swamp, which I knew to be 
at the distance of two or three hundred yards, by the ap- 
pearance of the timber. When in the swamp, I felt 
pretty secure, but detei mined that I would never again 
attempt to travel in the neighborhood of a plantation in 
the daytime. 

When in the swamp a quarter of a mile, I collected 
some dry wood, and lighted it with the aid of my tinder- 
box, flint and steel. This was the first fire that I kindled 
on my journey, and I was careful to burn none but dry 



CHARLES BALL. 845 

wood, to prevent the formation of smoke. Here I roasted 
my coria, and ate as much of it as I could. After mj 
dinner, I lay down and slept for three or four hours. 
When I awoke, the sun was scarcely visible through the 
tree tops. It was evening, and prudence required me to 
leave the swamp before dark, lest I should not be able to 
find my way out. 

Approaching the edge of the swamp, I watched the 
going down of the sun, and noted the stars as they ap- 
peared in the heavens. I had long since learned to dig- 
tinguish the north-star, from all the other small lumina- 
ries of the night J and the seven pointers were familiar to 
me. These heavenly bodies were all the guides I had to 
direct me on my way, and as soon as the night had set in, 
I commenced my march through the woods, bearing as 
nearly due east as I could. 

I took this course for the puipose of getting down the 
1^ country, as far as the road leading from Augusta to Mor- 
gan County, with the intention of pursuing the route by 
which I had come out from South Carolina; deeming it 
more safe to travel the high road by night, than to at- 
tempt to make my way at random, ever the country, gui- 
ded only by the stars. I travelled all night, keeping the 
north-star on my left hand as nearly as I could, and pas- 
sing many plantations, taking care to keep at a great dis- 
tance from the houses. I think I travelled at least twenty- 
five miles to-night, without passing any road that appeared 
so wide, or so much beaten, as that which I had travelled 
when I came from South Carolina. This night I passed 
through a peach orchard, laden with fine ripe fruit, with 
which I filled my pockets and hat ; and before day, in 
crossing a corn-field, I pulled a supply of roasting-cars, 
with which, and my peaches, I retired at break of day to 



346 THE ADVENTURES OF 

a large wood, into -vvliicb I travelled more tliau a mile 
before I halted. Here, in the midst of a thicket of high 
whortleberry bushes, I encamped for the day. I made my 
breakfast upon roasted corn and peaches, and then l5-y 
down and f^lept unmolested, until after twelve o'clock, 
when I awoke and rose up for the purpose of taking a bet- 
ter view of my quarters; but I was scarcely on my feet, 
when I was attacked by a sv/arm of hornets, that issued 
from a large nest that hung on the limb of a tree, within 
twenty or thirty feet of me. 

I knew that the best means of making peace with my 
hostile neighbors, was to lie down with my face to the 
ground; nnd this attitude I quickly took, not, however, 
before I had been stung by several of my assailants, which 
kept humming through the air about me, for a long-time, 
and prevented me from leaving this spot until after sun- 
down, and after they had retired to rest for the night. I 
now commenced the attack on my part, and taking a 
handful of dry leaves, approached the nest, which was 
full as large as a half bushel, and thrusting the leaves 
into the hole at the bottom of the nest, through, which its 
tenants passed in and out, secured the whole garrison, 
prisoners, in their own citadel. I now cut off the branch 
upon which the nest hung, and threw it, with its contents, 
into my evening fire, over which I roasted a supply of 
corn, for my night's journey. 

Commencing my march this evening, soon after night- 
fall, I travelled until about one o'clock in the morning, as 
nearly as I could estimate the time, by the appearance of 
the stars, when I came upon a road, which, from its width, 
and beaten nppearance, I took to be the rOad leading to 
Augusta, and determined to pursue it. 

I travelled on this road until I saw the appearance of 



CirARLT2S BAtL S^t 

daylight, when I turned into the woods, and went full a 
mile before I ventured 1o stop for the day. I ccncealed 
myself to-day, in a thicket of young pine trees, that had 
sprung up round about an old pen of logs, which had for- 
merly J)een used, either as a wolf or turkey trap. In this 
retreat, nothing disturbed me this day, and at dark I 
again returned to the road, which I travelled in silence, 
treading as lightly as possible with my feet, and listening 
most attentively to every sound that I heard. After being 
on the road more than an hour, I heard the sound of the 
feet of horses, and immediately stepped aside, and took 
my place behind the trunk of a large tree. "Within & 
minute or two, several horses, with men on them, passed 
me. The men were talking to each other, and one of 
them asked another, in my hearing, if it was not about 
five miles to the Oconee. The reply was too low to be 
understood by me ; but I was now satisfied that I was on 
the high road, leading down the country, on the Savannah 
side of Oconee. 

Waiting until these horsemen were out of hearing, I 
followed them at a brisk walk, and within less than an 
hour, came to the side of a river, the width of which, I 
could not ascertain, by reason of the darkness of the night, 
some fog having risen from the water. I had no doubV 
that this stream was the Oconee; and as I had heretofore 
forded that river with a wagon and team, I procured a 
long stick from the shore, and entered the river with all 
my clothes on me, except my great coat and pantaloons, 
which I carried on my back. The river proved shallow, 
not being more than four feet deep in the deepest part ; 
and I had proceeded in safety beyond the middle of the 
stream, when I licard the noise produced by horses' feet 
in front of mo, and within two or three minutes, several 



348 THE ADVENTURES OF 

liorsomen rode into the river directly before me, and ad- 
Tanced towards me, I now stooped down into the water^ 
so as to leave nothing but my head, and the upper part of 
my pack above its surface, and waited the passage of the 
strangers, who, after riding into the river, until the water 
washed the bellies of their horses, stopped to permit the 
animals to drink; two of them being, at this time, not 
more than ten yards from me. Here they entered into 
conversation with each other, and one said, it was his 
opinion, that 'Hhat fellow had not come this way at all/' 
The other then asked what hi§ name wns, and the first 
replied, that he was called Charles, in the advertisement^ 
but that he would no doubt call himself by some other 
jaame ; as runaway negroes always took some false name, 
and assumed a false character. I now knew that I was 
within a few feet of a party, who were patrolling the coun- 
try in search of me, and that nothing could save me from 
falling into their hands, but the obscurity produced by 
the fog. 

. There were no clouds, and if the fog had not been in 
the air, they must have perceived my head on the smooth 
surface of the water, and have known that it was no stump 
or log of wood. After a few minutes of pause, these gen- 
tlemen all rode on to the side of the river from which I 
had come, and in a short time were out of hearing. 

Notwithstanding they were gone, I remained in the 
water full a quarter of an hour, until I was certain that 
no other persons were moving along the road near mc. 
These were the sarae gentlemen who had passed me, early 
in the night, and from whom I learned the distance to the 
river. From those people I had gained intelligence, which 
I considered of much value to me. It was now certain, 
that the whole country had been advised of my flight; 



CHARLES BALL. Si9 

but it was equally certain, that no one had any knowledge 
of the course I had taken, nor of the point I was endeav- 
oring to reach. To prevent any one from acquiring a 
knowledge of my route, was a primary object with me; 
and I determined from this moment, so to regulate my 
movements, as to wrap my very existence, in a veil of 
impenetrable secrecy. After leaving the river one or two 
miles, I turned aside from the road, and wrung the water 
from my clothes, which were all wet. This occupied some 
time, and after being again equipped for my journey, I 
made all haste to gain as much distance this night, as pos- 
sible. The fog extended only a few miles from the river, 
and from the top of an eminence which I gained, an hour 
after wringing my clothes, the stars were distinctly visible. 
Here, I discovered that the road I was travelling bore 
nearly east, and was not likely to take me to the Savannah 
river for a long time. Nevertheless, I travelled hard 
until daylight appeared before me, which was my signal 
for turning into the woods, and seeking a place of safety 
for the day. 

The country in which I now was, appeared high and 
dry, without any swamps or low grounds, in which an 
asvlum might be found; I therefore determined to go to 
the top of a hill that extended on my right for some dis- 
tance either way. The summit of this ridge was gained 
before there was enough of daylight to enable me to see 
objects clearly; but as soon as a view of the place could 
be had, I discovered that it was a thicket of pine trees; 
and that the road which I had left, led through a planta- 
tion that lay within sight ; the house and other buildings, 
on vrhich, appeared to be such as I had before seen ; but 
I could not at once recollect where, or at what tiiiio I had 
seen them. 



350 THE ADVENTURES OF 

GoiDg to au open space in the thicket, from which I 
could scan the plantation at leisure, I became satisfied, 
after* the sun had risen, and thrown his light upon the 
earth, that this was no other than the residence of the 
gentleman, who had so kindly entertained my master and 
me, as we went to, and returned from Savannah with the 
wagon. I nov/ remembered, that this gentleman was the 
friend of my late master, and that he had told me, to 
come and see him if ever I passed this way again; but I 
knew that he was a slave-holder and a planter ; and that 
when he gave me liberty to visit his plantation, he expec- 
ted that my visits would always be the visits of a slave, 
and not the clandestine calls of a runaway negro. 

It seemed to me, that this gentleman was too benevo- 
lent a man, to arrest and send me back to my cruel mis- 
tress ; and yet, how could I expect, or even hope, that a 
C3tton planter would see a runaway slave on his premises, 
and not cause him to be taken up, and sent home ? Fail- 
ing to teize a runaway slave, when he has him in his 
pDwer, is hold to be one of the most dishonorable acts, to 
which a southern planter can subject himself. Nor should 
the people of the North be surprised at this. Slaves are 
regarded, in the South, as the most precious of all earthly 
possessions; and at the same time, as a precarious and 
hazardous kind of property, in the enjoyment of which 
the master is not safe. The planters may well be compa- 
red to the inhabitants of a national frontier, which is ex- 
posed to the inroads of hostile invading tribes. Where all 
are in like danger, and subject to like fears, it is expected 
that all will be governed by like sentiments, and act upon 
like principles. 

I stood and looked at the house of this good planter, 
for more than an hour after the sun had risen, and saw all 



CHARLES BALL. 351 

the movemcuts wliicli uyually take place ou a cotton plan- 
tation in the morning. Long before the sun was up, the 
overseer had proceeded to the field, at the head of the 
hands ; the black women who attended to the cattle, and 
milked the cows, had gone to the cow-pen with their pails; 
and the smoke ascended from the chimney of the kitchen, 
before the doors of the great house were opened, or any of 
the members of the family were seen abroad. At length, 
two young ladies opened the door, and stood in the fresh- 
ness of the morning air. These were soon joined by a 
brother; and at last, I saw the gentleman himself leave 
the house, and walk towards the stables, that stood at 
some distance from the house, on my left. I think even 
now, that it was a foolish resolution that emboldened mo 
to show myself to this gentleman. It was like throwing 
one^s self in the way of a lion, who is known sometimes 
to spare those whom he might destroy ; but I resolved to 
go and meet this planter at his stables, and tell- him my 
whole story. Issuing from the woods, I crossed the fields 
unperceived by the people at the house, and going directly 
to the stables, presented myself to their proprietor, as he 
stood looking at a fine horse, in one of the yards. At 
first, he did not know me, and asked me whose man I was. 
I then asked him, if he did not remember me; and named 
the time when I had been at his house. I then told at 
once, that I was a runaway; that my master was dead, 
and my mistress so cruel, that I could not live with h«r; 
not omitting to show the scars -on my back, and to give a 
full account of the manner in which they had been made. 
The gentleman stood and looked at me more than a min- 
ute, without uttering a word, and then said, "Charles, I 
will not betray you, but you must not stay here. It must 
not be known that you were on this plantation^ and that I 



352 THE ADVENTURES OF 

saw and conversed with you. However, as I suppose you 
are hungry, you may go to the kitchen and get your 
breakfast with my house servants/' 

He then set off for the house, and I followed, but turn- 
ing into the kitchen, as he ordered me, I was soon supplied 
with a good breakfast of cold meat, warm bread, and as 
much new butter-milk as T chose to drink. Before I sat 
down to breakfast, the lady of the house came into the 
kitchen, with her two daughters, and gave me a dram of 
peach brandy. I drank this brandy, and was very thank- 
ful for it ; but am fully convinced now, that it did me 
much more harm than good ; and that this part of the 
kindness of this most excellent family, was altogether 
misplaced. 

Whilst I was taking my breakfast, a black man came 
into the kitchen, and gave me a dollar that he said his 
master had sent me, at the same time, laying on the table 
before me, a package of bread and meat, weighing at least 
ten pounds, wrapped up in a cloth. On delivering these 
things, the black man told me that his master desired me 
to quit his premises as soon as I had finished my break- 
fast. 

This injunction I obeyed; and within less than an hour 
after I entered this truly hospitable house, I quitted it 
forever, but not without leaving behind me my holiest 
blessings upon the heads of its inhabitants. It was yet 
early in the morning when I regained the woods on the 
opposite side of the plantation, from that by which I had 
entered it. 



CHARLES BALL, 86^ 



CHAPTER XXI, 



I could not believe it possible that the white people, 
whom I had just left, would give information of the route 
I had taken; but as it was possible that all who dwelt on 
this plantation might not be so pure of heart, as were 
those whose possessed it, I thought it prudent to travel 
some distance in the woods, before I stopped for the day, 
notwithstanding the risk of moving about in the open 
light. For the purpose of precluding the possibility of 
being betrayed, I now determined to quit this road, and 
travel altogether in the woods, or through open fialds, for 
two or three nights, guiding my march by the stars. In 
pursuance of this resolution, I bore away to the left of 
the high road, and travelled five or six miles before I 
stopped, going round all the fields that I saw in my way, 
and keeping them at a good distance from me. 

In the afternoon of this day it rained, and I had no 
other shelter than the boughs and leaves of a large mag- 
nolia tree; but this kept me tolerably dry, and as it 
cleared away in the evening, I was able to continue my 
journey by star light. I have no definite idea of the dis- 
tance that I travelled in the course of this and the two 
succeeding nights, as I had no road to guide me, and was 
much perplexed by the plantations and houses, the latter 
of which I most carefully eschewed; but on the third 
night after this, I encountered a danger, which was very 
nearly fatal to me. 

. At the time of which I now speak, the moon having 
changed lately, shone until about eleven o'clock. I had 
been on my way two or three hours this evening, and all 



354 THE ADVENTURES OF 

tlic world seemed to be quiet, when I entered a plantation 
that lay quite across may way. In passing through these 
fields, I at last saw the houses and other improvements, 
and about a hundred yards from the house, a peach orchard, 
which I could distinguish by the faint light of the moon. 
This orchard was but little out of my way, and a quarter 
of a mile from the woods. I resolved to examine these 
peach trees, and see what fruit was on them. Coming 
amongst them, I found the fruit of the kind called Indian 
peaches, in Georgia. 

These Indian peaches are much the largest and finest 
peaches that I have ever seen, one of them oftentimes be- 
ing as large as a common quince. I had filled my pockets, 
and was filling my handkerchief with this delicious fruit, 
when I heard the loud growl of a dog toward the house, 
the roof of which I could see. I stood as still as a stone, 
but yet the dog growled on, and at length barked out. I 
presume he smelled me, for he could not hear me. In a 
short time I found that the dog was coming towards me, 
and I then started and ran as fast as I could for the woods. 
He now barked louder, and was followed by another dog, 
both making a terrible noise. 

I was then pretty light of foot, and was already close by 
the woods when the first dog overtook me, I carried a 
good stick in my hand, and with this I kept the dogs at 
bay, until I gained the fence, and escaped into jbhe woods; 
but now I heard the shouts of men encouraging the dogs, 
both of which were now up with me, and the men were 
coming as fast as they could. The dogs would not per- 
mit me to run, and unless I could make free use of my 
heels, it was clear that I must be taken in a few minutes. 
I now thought of my mastcx*'s sword, which I had not 
removed from its quilted scabbard, in ray great coat, since 



CHARLES BALL. 355 

I commenced my journey. I snatched it from its sheath, 
and at a single cat laid open the head of the largest and 
fiercest of the dogs, from his neck to his nose. He gave 
a loud yell, and fell dead on the ground. The other dog, 
seeing the fate of his companion, leaped the fence and 
escaped into the field, where he stopped, and like a cow- 
ardly cur, set up ^a clamorous barking at the enemy he 
was afraid to face. 

I thought this no time to wait to ascertain what the 
men would say when they came to their dead dog, but 
made the best of my way through the woods, and did not 
stop to look behind me, for more than an hour. In my 
battle with the dogs I lost all of my peaches, except a few 
that remained in my pockets; and in running through the 
woods I tore my clothes very badly, a disaster not easily 
repaired in my situation, but I had proved the solidity of 
my own judgment in putting up my sword as a part of 
my travelling equipage. 

I now considered it necessary to travel as fast as possi- 
ble, and get as far as I could before day, from the late 
battle ground; and certainly I lost no 'time. But from 
the occurrences of the next day, I am of opinion that I 
had not continued in a straight line all night, but that I 
must have travelled in a circular or zigzag route. "When 
a man is greatly alarmed, and in a strange country, he is 
not able to note courses, or calculate distances very accu- 
rately. 

Day-light made its appearance when I was moving to 
the south, for the day -break was on my left hand ; but I 
immediately stopped, went into a thicket of low white- oak 
bushes, and lay down to rest myself, for I was very weary, 
and soon fell asleep, imd did not awake until it was ten or 
eleven o'clock. Bcibre I fell asleep I noted the course of 



356 TUB ADVENTURES OP 

the risiug sun, from the place where I lay, in pursuance 
of a rule I had established; for by this means I could 
tell the time of day at any hour, within a short period of 
time, by taking the bearing of the sun in the heavens, 
from where I lay, and then comparing it with the place 
of his rising. 

When I awoke to-day, I felt hungry, and after eating 
my breakfast, again lay down, but felt an unusual sense 
of disquietude and alarm. It seemed to me that this 
was not a safe place to lie in, although it looked as well 
as any other spot that I could see. I rose and looked for 
a more secure retreat, but not seeing any, lay down again; 
dtill I was uneasy and could not lie still. Finally I de- 
termined to get up and remove to the side of a large and 
long black log, that lay at a short distance from me. 

I went to the log and lay down by it, placing my bun- 
dle under my head, with the intention of going to sleep 
again, if I could; but I had not been here more than fif- 
teen or twenty minutes, when I heard the noise of men's 
voices, and soon after the tramping of horses on the 
ground. I lay with my back to the log, in such a position that 
I could see the place where I hadbeen in the bushes. I 
saw two dogs go into this little thicket, and three horse- 
men rode over the very spot where I had lain when asleep 
in tjie morning, and immediately horses and voices were 
at my back, around me, and over me. Two horses jumped 
over the log by the side of which I lay, one about ten feet 
from my feet, and the other within two yards of my 
head. The horses both saw me, took fright, and started 
to run; but fortunately their riders, who ^ere probably 
looking for me in the tops of the trees, or expecting to 
see me start before them in the woods, and run for my 
life, did not see me, and attributed the alarm of their 



CHARLES BALL. 367 

horses to the black appearance of the log, for I heard one 
of them say — ''Our horses are afraid of black logs — I 
wonder how they would stand the sight of the negro, if 
we should meet him/' 

There must have been in the troop at least twenty 
horsemen, and the number of dogs was greater than I 
could count, as they ran in the woods. I knew that all 
these men and dogs were in search of me, and that if they 
could find me, I should be hunted down like a wild 
beast. The dogs that h^d gone into the thicket where I 
had been, fortunately for me, had not been trained to hunt 
negroes in the woods, and were probably brought out for 
the purpose of being trained. Doubtless, if some of the 
kept dogs, as they are called, of which there were certainly 
several in this large pack, had happened to go into that 
thicket, instead of those that did go there, my race would 
soon have been run. 

I lay still by the side of the log for a long time after 
the horses, dogs, and men had ceased to trouble the woods 
with their noise — if it can be said that a man lies still, 
who is trembling in every joint, nerve and muscle, like a 
dog lying upon a cake of ice — and when I arose and 
turned round, I found myself so completely bereft of un- 
derstanding, that I could nol tell south from north, nor 
east from west. I could not even distinguish the thicket 
of bushes from which I had removed to come to this 
place, from the other bushes of the woods 

I remained here all day, and at night, it appeared to mc 
that the sun set in the south-east. After sun-down, the 
moon appeared to my distempered judgment to stand due 
north from me, and all the stars were out of their places. 
Fortunately I had sense enough remaining, to know that 
it would not be safe for mc to attempt to travel, until my 
El 



358 THE ADVENTURES 02? 

brain had been restored to its ordinary stability, which 
did not take place until the third morning after my fright. 
The three days that I passed in this place I reckon the 
most unhappy of my life ; for surely it is the height of 
human misery, to be oppressed with alienation of mind, 
and to be conscious of the affliction. 

Distracted as I was, I had determined neyer to quit this 
wood, and voluntarily return to slavery; and the joy I 
felt on the third morning, when I saw the sun rise in his 
proper place in the heavens — the black log — the thicket of 
bushes — and all other things resume the positions in 
which I found them, may be imagined by those who have 
been saved from apparently hopeless shipwreck, on a bar- 
ren rock, in the midst of the ocean, but cannot be de- 
scribed by any but a poetic pen. 

I spent this day in making short excursions through 
the woods, for the purpose of ascertaining whether any 
road was near to me or not; and in the afternoon I came 
to one, about a mile from my camp, which was broad and 
had the appearance of being much travelled. It appeared 
to me to lead to the north. 

A while before sun-down, I brought my bundle to this 
road, and lay down quietly to await the approach of night. 
When it was quite dark, e:^cept the light of the moon, 
which was now brilliant, I took to this road, and travelled 
all night, without hearing or seeing any person ; and on 
the succeeding night, about two o'clock in the morning, I 
came to the margin of a river, so wide that I could not 
see across it; but the fog was so dense at this time, that 
I could not have seen across a river of very moderate 
width. I procured a long pole, and sounded the depth of 
the water, which I found not very deep; but as I could not 
see the opposite shore, was afraid to attempt to ford the 
stream. 



CnAHLES BALL. 359 

In this dilemma^ I turned back from the river, and 
went more than a mile, to gain the cover of a small wood, 
where I might pass the day in safety, and wait a favora- 
ble moment for obtaining a view of the river, preparatory 
to crossing it. I lay all day in full view of the high road, 
and saw at least a hundred people pass ; from which I 
inferred that the country was populous about me. In the 
evening, as soon as it was dark, I left my retreat, and 
returned to the river side. The atmosphere was now clear, 
and the river seemed to be at least a quarter of a mile in 
width; and whilst I was divesting myself of my clothes, 
preparatory to entering the water, happening to look 
down the shore, I saw a canoe, with its head drawn high 
on the beach; On reaching the canoe, I found that it 
was secured to the trunk of a tree by a lock and chain; but 
after many efforts, I broke the lock and launched the 
canoe into the river. The paddles had been removed, but 
with the aid of my sounding-pole, I managed to conduct 
the canoe across the water. 

I was now once more in South Carolina, where I knew 
it was necessary for me to be even more watchful than I 
had been in Georgia. I do not know where I crossed the 
Savannah river, but I think it must have been only a few 
miles above the town of Augusta. 

After gaining the Carolina shore, I took an observation 
of the rising moon, and of such stars as I was acquainted 
with, and hastened to get away from the river, from which 
I knew that heavy fogs rose every night, at this season of 
the year, obscuring the heavens for many miles on either 
side. I travelled this night at least thirty miles, and 
provided myself with a supply of corn, which was now 
hard, from a field at the side of the road. At daybreak, 
I turned into the woods, and went to the top of a hill on 



360 THE ADVENTURES OF 

my left, where the 'ground was overgrown by the species 
of pine-tree called spruce in the South. I here kindled a 
fire, and parched corn for my breakfast. 

In the afternoon of this day, the weather became cloudy, 
and before dark, the rain fell copiously, and continued 
through the night, with the wind high. I took shelter 
under a large stooping tree that was decayed and hollow 
on the lower side, and kept me dry until the morning. 
When daylight appeared, I could see that the country 
around me was well inhabited, and that the forest in which 
I lay, was surrounded by plantations, at the distance of 
one or two miles from me. I did not consider this a saf^^ 
position, and waited anxiously for night, to enable me to 
change my quarters. The weather was foul throughout 
the day ; and when night returned, it was so dark that I 
could not see a large tree three feet before me. Waiting 
until the moon rose, I made my way back to the road, but 
had not proceeded more than two or three miles on my 
way, when I came to a place where the road forked, and 
the two roads led away almost at right angles from each 
other. It was so cloudy that I could not see the place of 
the moon in the heavens, and I knew not which of these 
roads to take. To go wrong was worse than to stand still, 
and I therefore determined to look out for some spot in 
which I could hide myself, and remain in this neighbor- 
hood until the clearing up of the weather. Taking the 
right hand road, I followed its course until I saw at the 
distance, as I computed it in the night, of two miles from 
me, a large forest which covered elevated ground. I 
gained it by the shortest route across some cotton fields. 
Going several hundred yards into this wood, I attempted 
to kindle a fire, in which I failed, every combustible sub- 
stance being wet. This compelled me to pass the night as 



CHARLES BALL. 361 

well as I coulJ^ amongst the damp bushes and trees that 
overhung me. When day came, I went farther into the 
woods, and on the top of the highest ground that I could 
see, established my camp, by cutting bushes with my 
knife, and erecting a sort of rude booth. 

It was now, by my computation, about the twenty-fifth 
of August, and I remained here eleven days without see- 
ing one clear night; and in all this time the sun never 
shone for half a day at once. I procured my subsistence 
while here, from a field of corn which I discovered at the 
distance of a mile and a half from my camp. This was 
the first time that I was weather-bound, and my patience 
had been worn out and renewed repeatedly, before the 
return of the clear weather; but one afternoon I perceived 
the trees to be much agitated by the wind, the clouds ap- 
peared high, and were driven with velocity over my head. 
I saw the clear sky appear in all its beauty, in the north- 
west. 

Before sundown the wind was high, the sun shone in 
full splendor, and a few fleecy clouds, careering high in 
the upper vault of heaven, gave assurance that the rains 
were over and gone. At nightfall, I returned to the forks 
of the road, and after much observation, finally concluded 
to follow the right hand road, in which I am satisfied that 
. I committed a great error. Nothing worthy of notice oc- 
curred for several days after this. As I was now in a 
thickly-peopled country, I never moved until long after 
night, and was cautious never to permit daylight to find 
me on the road; but I observed that the north- star was 
always on my left hand. My object was to reach the 
neighborhood of Columbia, and get upon the road which 
I had travelled and seen years before, in coming to the 
S juth : but the road I was now on must have been the 

El* 



362 TirE ADVENTURES UF 

great Charleston road, leading down the country, and not 
across the courses of the rivers. So many people travelled 
this road, as well by night as by day, that my progress 
was very slow ; and in some of the nights I did not travel 
more than eight miles. At the end of a week, after leav- 
ing the forks, I found myself in a flat, sandy, poor coun- 
try ; and as I had not met with any river on this road, I 
now concluded that I was on the way to the sea-board in- 
stead of Columbia. In my perplexity, I resolved to try 
to get information concerning the country I was in, by 
placing myself in some obscure place in the side of the 
road, and listening to the conversation of travellers as they 
passed me. For this purpose I chose the corner of a cot- 
ton field, around which the road turned, and led along the 
fence for some distance. Passing the day in the woods 
among the pine-trees, I came to this corner in the evening, 
and lying down within the field, waited patiently the com- 
ing of travellers, that I might heaf their conver.^ation, and 
endeavor to learn from that which they said, the name at 
least otf some place in this neighborhood. On the first 
and second evenings that I lay here, I gleaned nothing 
from the passengers that I thought could be of service to 
me; but on the third night, about ten o'clock, several 
wagons drawn by mules, passed me, and I heard one of 
the drivers call to another and tell him that it was sixty 
miles to Charleston ; and that they should be able to reach 
the river to-morrow. I could not at first imagine what 
liver this could be ; but another of the wagoners enquired 
bow far it was to the Edisto, to which it was replied by 
some one, that it was near thirty miles. I now perceived 
that I had mistaken my course ; and was as completely 
lost as a wild goose in cloudy weather. 

Not knowing what to do^ I retraced the road that had 



CHARLES BALL. 863 

led me to this place, for several nights, hoping that some- 
thing would happen from which I might learn the route 
to Columbia; but I gained no information that could 
avail me anything. At length I determined to quit this 
-road altogether, travel by the north-star for two or three 
weeks, and after that to trust to Providence to guide me 
to some road that might lead me back to Maryland. Hav- 
ing turned my face due North, I made my way pretty well 
for the first night ; but on the second, the fog was so 
dense that no stars could be seen. This compelled me to 
remain in my camp, which I had pitched in a swamp. 
In this place I remained more than a week, waiting for 
clear nights ; but now the equinoctial storm came on, and 
raged with a fury which I had never before witnessed in 
this annual gale ; at least it had never before appeared so 
violent to me, because, perhaps, I had never been exposed 
to its blasts, without the shelter of a house of some kind. 
This storm continued four days; and no wolf ever lay 
closer in his lair, or moved out with more stealthy caution 
than I did during this time. My subsistence was drawn 
from a small corn-field at the edge of the swamp in which 

Hay. 

After the storm was over, the weather became calm and 
clear, and I fell into a road which appeared to run nearly 
north-west. Following the course of this road by short 
marches, because I was obliged to start late at night and 
stop before day, I came on the first day, or rather night, 
of October, by my calender, to a broad and well-frequented 
road, that crossed mine at nearly right angles. These 
roads crossed in the middle of a plantation, and I took to 
the right hand along this great road, and pursued it in the 
same cautious and slow manner that I had travelled foi 
the last month. 



864 THE ADVENTURES OF 

When the day came, I took refuge in the woods as usual 
choosing the highest piece of ground that I could find in 
the neighborhood. !N o part of this country was very high, 
hut I thought people who visited these woods, would be 
less inclined to walk to the tops of the hills, than to keep 
their course along the low grounds. 

I had lately crossed many small streams ; but on the 
second night of my journey on this road, came to a nar- 
row but deep river, and after the most careful search, no 
boat or craft of any kind could be found on my side. A 
large flat, with two or three canoes, lay on the opposite 
side, but they were as much out of my reach as if they 
bad never been made. There was no alternative but swim- 
ming this stream, and I made the transit in less than three 
minutes, carrying my packages on my back. 

I had as yet, fallen in with no considerable towns, and 
whenever I had seen a house near the road, or one of the 
small hamlets of the South in my way, I had gone round 
by the woods or fields, so as to avoid the inhabitants ; but 
on the fourth night after swimming the small river, I 
came in sight of a considerable village, with lights burn- 
ing and shining through many of the windows. I knew 
the danger of passing a town, on account of the patrols, 
with which all southern towns are provided, and making 
a long circuit to the right, so as totally to avoid this vil- 
lage, I came to the banks of a broad river, which, upon 
further examination, I found flowing past the village, and 
near its border. This compelled me to go back, and 
attempt to turn the village on the left, which was perfor- 
med by wandering a long time in swamps and pine woods. 

It was break of day when I regained the road beyond 
the village, and returning to the swamps from which I 
had first issued, I passed the day under their cover. On 



CHARLES BALL. 865 

the following night, after regaining the road, I soon found 
myself in a country almost entirely clear of timber, and 
aboundTing in fields of cotton and corn. 

The houses were numerous, and the barking of dogs 
was incessant. 1 felt that I was in the midst of dangers, 
and that 1 was entering a region very different from those 
tracts of country through which I had lately passed, where 
the gloom of the wilderness was only broken by solitary 
plantations or lonely huts. I had no doubt that I was in 
the neighborhood of some town, but of its name, and the 
part of the country in which it was located, I was igno- 
rant. I at length found, that I was receding from the 
woods altogether, and entering a champaign country, in 
the midst of which I now perceived a town of considerable 
magnitude, the inhabitants of which were entirely silent, 
and the town itself presented the appearance of total soli- 
tude. The country around was so open, that I despaired 
of turning so large a place as this was, and again finding 
the road I travelled, I therefore determined to risk all con- 
sequences, and attempt to pass this town under cover of 
darkness. 

Keeping straight forward, I came unexpectedly to a 
broad river, which I now saw running between me and 
the town. I took it for granted that there must be a ferry 
at this place, and on examining the shore, found several 
small boats fastened only with ropes to a large scow. 
One of these boats I seized, and was quickly on the oppo- 
site shore of the river. I entered the village and procee- 
ded to its centre, without seeing so much as a rat in mo- 
tion. Finding myself in an open space, I stopped to ex- 
• amine the streets, and upon looking at the houses around 
me, I at once recognized the jail of Columbia, and the tav- 
ern in which I had lodged on the night after I was sold. 



SG6 THE ADVENTURES OF 

This discovery made mc feel almost at home, with my 
wife and children. I remembered the streets by which I 
had come from the country to tl-'^ jail, and was quickly at 
the extremity of the town, marching towards the residence 
of the paltry planter, at whose house ^I had lodged on my 
way south. It was late at night when I left Columbia, 
and it was necessary for me to make all speed, and get as 
far as possible from that place before day. I ran rather 
than walked, until the appearance of dawn, when I left 
the road and took shelter in the pine woods, with which 
this part of the country abounds. 

I had now been travelling almost two months, and was 
still so near the place from which I first departed, that I 
could easily have walked to it in a week, by day-light; 
but I hoped that as I now was on a road with which I was 
acquainted, and in a country through which I had trav- 
elled before, that my future progress would be more rapid, 
and that I should be able to surmount, without difficulty, 
many of the obstacles that had hitherto embarrassed me 
so greatly. 

It was now in my power to avail myself of the knowl- 
edge I had formerly acquired, of the customs of South 
Carolina. The patrol are very rigid in the execution of 
the authority with which they are invested; but I had 
never much difficulty with these officers anywhere. From 
dark until ten or eleven o'clock at night, the patrol are 
very watchful, and always traversing the country in quest 
of ncgros; but towards midnight these gentlemen grow 
cold, or slcejiy, or weary, and generally betake themselves 
to some house, where they can'procure a comfortable fire. 

I now established as a rule of my future conduct, to 
remain in my hiding place until after ten o'clock, accord- 
ing to my computation of time, and this night did not 



CHARLES BALL. 367 

come to the road, until I supposed it to be within an. hour 
of midnight, and it was well for me that I practiced so 
much caution, for when within two or three hundred yards 
of the road, I heard people conversing. After standing 
some minutes in the woods, and listening to the voices at 
the road, the people separated, and a party took each end 
of the road, and galloped away upon their horses. These 
people were certainly a band of patrolers, who were watch- 
ing this end of the road, and had just separated to return 
home for the night. 

After the horsemen were quite out of hearing, I came to 
the road, and walked asfar as I could for two or three hours, 
and again came into the lane, leading to the house where 
I had first remained a few days, in Carolina. Turning 
away from the road, I passed through this plantation, near 
the old cotton-gin house, in which I had formerly lodged, 
and perceived that everything on this plantation was nearly 
as it was when I left it. Two or three miles from this 
place I again left the road, and sought a place of conceal- 
ment, and from this time until I. reached Maryland, I 
never remained in the road until day-light but once, and I 
paid dearly then for my temerity. 

I was now in an open, thickly peopled country, in com- 
parison with many other tracts through which I had 
passed; and this circumstance compelled me to observe 
the greater caution. As nearly as possible, I confined my 
travelling within the hours of midnight and three o'clock 
in the morning. Parties of patrolers were heard by me 
almost every morning, before day. These people some- 
times moved directly along the roads, but more frequently 
lay in wait near the the side of the road, ready to pounce 
upon any runaway slave that might chance to pass; but I 
knew by former experience that they never lay out all 



368 THE ADVENTURES OF 

night, except in times of apprehended danger; and the 
country appearing at this time to be quiet, I felt but little 
apprehension of falling in with these policemen, within 
my travelling hours. 

There was now plenty of corn in the fields, and sweet 
potatos had not yet been dug. There was no scarcity of 
provisions with me, and my health was good, and my 
strength unimpaired. For more than two weeks I pur- 
sued the road that had led me from Columbia, believing I 
was on my way to Camden. Many small streams crossed 
my way, but none of them were large enough to oblige 
me to swim in crossing them. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

On the twenty-fourth of October, according to my com- 
putation, in a dark night, I came to a river, which ap- 
peared to be both broad and deep. Sounding its depth 
with a pole, I found it too deep to be forded, and after the 
most careful search along the shore, no boat could be dis- 
covered. This place appeared altogether strange to me, 
and I began to fear that I was again lost. Confident that 
I had never before been where I now found myself, and 
ignorant of the other side of the stream, I thought it best 
not to attempt to cross this water until I was better in- 
formed of the country through which it flowed. 

A thick wood bordered the road on my left, and gave 
me shelter until day-light. Ascending a tree at sun-rise, 
that overlooked the stream, which appeared to be more 



CHARLES BALL. 36^ 

than a mile in width, I pei-ceived on the opposite shore a 
house, and one large and several small boats in the river 
I remained in this tree the greater part of the day, and 
saw several persons cross the river, some of whom had hor- 
ses; feut in the evening the boats were all taken back to 
the place at which I had seen them in the morning. This 
river was so broad, that I felt some fear of failing in the 
attempt to swim it; but seeing no prospect of procuring 
a boat to transport me, I resolved to attempt the naviga- 
tion as soon as it was dark. 

About nine o^ clock at night, having equipped myself in 
the best manner I was able, I undertook this hazardous 
navigation, and succeeded in gaining the farther shore of 
the river in abaut an hour, with all my things in safety. 
On the previous day I had noted the bearing of the road, 
as it led from the river, and in the middle of the night I 
again resumed my journey, in a state of perplexity bor- 
dering upon desperation; for it was now evident that this 
was not the road by which we had travelled when we came 
to the southern country, and on which hand to turn, to 
reach the right way, I knew not. 

After travelling five or six miles on this road, and hav- 
ing the north star in view all the time, I became satisfied 
that my course lay north-west, and that I was consequently 
going out of my way; and to heighten my anxiety — I 
had not tasted any animal food since 1 crossed the Savan- 
nah river — a sensation of hunger harrassed me constantly; 
but fortune which had been so long adverse to me, and 
had led me so often astray, had now a little favor in store 
for me. The leaves were already fallen from some of the 
more tender trees, and near the road I this night perceived 
a persimmon tree, well laden with fruit, and whilst gath- 
ering the fallen persimmons under the tree, a noise o,ver 



370 THE ADVEVTURES OT' 

head arrested my attention. This noise was caused by a 
large Opossum, which was on the tree gathering fruit like 
myself. With a long stick the animal was brought to 
the ground, and it proved to be very fat, weighing at least 
ten poundfT. With such a luxury as this in my posses- 
sion, I could not think of travelling far without tasting it, 
and accordingly halted about a mile from the persim- 
mon tree, on a rising ground in a thick wood, where 
I killed my opossum, and took off its skin, a circumstance 
that I much regretted, for with the skin I took at least a 
pound of fine fat. Had I possessed the means of scalding 
my game, and dressing it like a pig, it would have affor- 
ded me provision for a week ; but as it was, I made a 
large fire and roasted my prize before it, loosing all the 
oil that ran out in the operation, for want of a dripping 
pan to catch it. It was day light when my meat was 
ready for the table, and a very sumptuous breakfast it 
yielded me. 

Since leaving Columbia, I had followed, as nearly as 
the course of the roads permitted, the index of the North 
star; which I supposed, would lead me on the most direct 
route to Maryland ; but I now became convinced, that this] 
star was leading me away from the line by which I had 
approached the cotton country. 

I slept none this day, but passed the whole time, from 
breakfast until night, in considering the means of re- 
gaining my lost way". From the aspect of the country, 
I arrived at the conclusion, that I was not near the sea 
coast ; for there were few swamps in all this region ; the 
land lay rather high and rolling, and oak timber aboun- 
ded. 

At the return of night, I resumed my journey earlier 
than usual : paying no regard to the roads, but keeping 



CHARLES BALL. 871 

the North star on my left hand, as nearly as I could. 
This night I killed a rabbit, which had leaped from the 
bushes before me, by throwing mj walking stick at it. 
It was roasted at my stopping place in the evening, and was 
very good. I pursued the same course, keeping the North 
star on my left hand, for three nights; intending to get 
as far east as the road leading from Columbia to Rich- 
mond, in Virginia ; but as my line of march lay almost 
continually in the woods, I made but little progress; and 
on the third day, the weather became cloudy, so that I 
could not see the stars. This again compelled me to lie 
by, until the return of fair weather. 

On the second day after I had stopped this time, the 
sun shone out bright, in the morning, and continued to 
shed a glorious light during the day ; but in the evening, 
the heavens, became overcast with clouds; and the night 
that followed was so dark, that I did not attempt to 
travel. This state of the weather continued more than a 
week : obliging me to remain stationary all this time. 
These cloudy nighty were succeeded by a brisk wind from 
the north-west, accompanied by fine clear nights, in 
which I made the best of my way towards the north-east, 
pursuing my course across the country without regard 
to roads, forests, or streams of water : crossing many of 
the latter, none of which were deep, but some of them 
were extremely muddy. One night I became entangled 
in a thick and deep swamp; the trees that grew in whicli, 
were so tall, and stood so close together, that the inter- 
locking of their boughs, and the deep foliage in which 
they were clad, prevented me from seeing the stars. 
Wandering here for several hours, most of the time with 
mud and water over my knees, and frequently wading in 
stagnant pools, with deep and slimy bottoms, I Ixjcame 



:]T2 . THE ADVENTURES OF 

totally lost, and was incapable of seeing the leasi appear- 
ance of fast land. At length giving, up all hope 
of extricating myself from this abyss of m\id, water, 
brambles, and fallen timber, I scrambled on a large tus- 
sock, and sat down to await the coming of day, with 
the intention of going to the nearest highland, as soon 
as the sun should be up. The nights were now becoming 
cool, and though I did not see any frost in the swamp 
where I was in the morning, I haye no doubt, that hoar 
frost was seen in the dry and open country. After day 
light, I found myself as much perplexed, as I was at 
midnight. No shore was to be seen ; and in every direction 
there was the same deep, dreary, black solitude. To add 
to my misfortune, the morning proved cloudy, and when 
the sun was up, I could not tell the east fron; the west. 
After waiting several hours, for a sight of the sun, and 
failing to obtain it, I set out in search of a running stream 
of water, intending to strike off at right angles, with the 
course of the current, and endeavor to reach the dry 
ground by this means; but after wandering about, through 
tangled bushes, briars, and vines, clambering over fallen 
tree tops, for two or three hours, I sat down in despair of 
finding any guide to conduct me from this detestable place. 

My bag of meal, that 1 took at the commencement of 
my journey, was long since gone; and the only provisions 
that I now possessed, were a few grains of parched corn, 
and near a pint of chesnuts, that I had picked up under 
a tree, the day before I entered the swamp. The chestnut 
tree was full of nuts; but I was afraid to throw sticks, 
or to shake the tree, lest hunters or other persons, hear- 
ing the noise, might be drawn to the place. 

About ten o'clock, I sat down under a large cypress 
tree, upon a decaying log of the same timber, to make 



CHARLES BALL. 373 

my breakfast on a few grains of parched corn. Near nw. 
was an open space without trees, but filled with water, 
that seemed to be deep ; for no grass grew in it, except a 
small quantity near the shore. The water was on my left 
hand ; and as I sat cracking my corn, my attention was 
attracted by the playful gambols of two squirrels, that 
were running and chasing each other on the boughs of 
some trees near me. Half pleased with the joyous move- 
ments of the little animals, and half covetous of their 
carcasses, to roast and devour them, I paid no attention 
to a succession of sounds on my left, which I thought 
proceeded from the movements of frogs at the edge of the 
water, until the breaking of a stick near me, caxised me to 
furn my head, when I discovered I had other neighbors 
than spring frogs, 

A monstrous alligator had left the water, and was 
crawling over the mud, with his eyes fixed upon me. He 
was now within fifteen feet of me, and in a moment more, 
if he had not broken the stick with his weight, I should 
have btjcome his prey. He could easily have knocked me 
down with a blow of his tail; and if his jaws had once 
been closed on a leg or an arm, he would have dragged me 
into the water, spite of any resistance that I could have 
made. At the sight of him, I sprang to my feet, and 
running to the other end of the fallen tree on which I sat 
and being there out of danger, had an opportunity of view- 
ing the^motions of the alligator at leisure. Finding me 
out of his reach, he raised his trunk from the ground, 
elevated his snout, and gave a wistful look, the import of 
which I well understood; then turning slowly round, he 
retreated to the water, and sank from my vision, 

I was much alarmed by this adventure with the alliga- 
j'ator: foi- had I fallen in with tliis huge reptile, in the 



574 THE ADVENTURES OF 

night tijiio^ I should have had no chance of escape from 
his tusks. The whole day was spent in the swamp, not 
in travelling from place to place; but in waiting for the 
6UU to shinC; to enable me to obtain a knowledge of the 
various points of the heavens. The day was succeeded 
by a night of unbroken darkness^ and it was late in the 
evening of the second day^ before I saw the sun; it being 
then too late to attempt to extricate myself from the 
swamp for that day, I was obliged'to pass another night 
in the lodge that I had formed for myself in the thick 
boughs of a fallen cypress tree, which elevated me several 
feet from the ground, where I believed the alligator could 
not reach me, if he should come in pursuit of me. 

On the morning of the third day, the sun rose beauti- 
fully clear, and at sight of him, I set off for the east. It 
must have been five miles from the place where I lay to 
the dry land on the east of the swamp; for with all the 
exertion that fear and hunger compelled me to make, it 
was two or three o'clock in the afternoon, when I reached 
the shore, after swimming in several places, and suffering 
the loss of a very valuable part of my clothes, which were 
torn off by the bryars and snags. On coming to high 
ground, I found myself in the woods, and hungry as I 
was, lay down to await the coming of night, lest some 
one should see me moving through the forest in day light. 
When night came on, I resumed my journey, by the stars 
which were visible, and marched several miles before 
coming to a plantation. The first that I came to was a 
cotton field; and after much search, I found no corn, nor 
grain of any kind on this place, and was compelled to 
continue on my way. 

Two or three miles further on, I was more fortunate, 
and found n field of corn which had been gathered from 



CHARLES BALL. ^ 875 

the stalks, and thrown in heaps along the ground. Filling 
my little bag, which I still kept, with this corn, I retreat- 
ed a mile or two in the woods, and striking fire, encamped, 
for the purpose of parching and eating it. After des- 
patching my meal, I lay down beside the fire, and fell 
into a sound sleep, from which I did not awake until long 
after sun-rise; but on rising, and looking round me, I 
found that my lodge was within less than one hundred 
yards of a new house, that people were building in the 
woods, and upon which men were now at work. Dropping 
instantly to the ground, I crawled away through the woods 
until being out of sight of the house, I ventured to rise 
and escape on my feet. After I lay down in the night, 
my fire had died away, and emitted no smoke; this cir- 
cumstance saved me. This affair made me more cautious 
as to my future conduct. 

Hiding in the woods, until night came on, I continued 
my course eastward, and some time after midnight, came 
upon a wide, well beaten road, one end of which led, at 
this place, a little to the left of the north star, which I 
could plainly see. Here I deliberated a long time, 
whether to take this road, or continue my course across 
the country by the stars; but at last resolved, to follow 
the road, more from a desire to get out of the woods, than 
from a conviction that it would lead me the right way. 
In the course of this night, I saw few plantations; but 
was so fortunate as to see a ground-hog crossing the road 
before me. This animal I killed with my stick, and car- 
ried it until morning. 

At the approach of day-light, turning away to the 
right, I gained the top of an eminence, from which I 
could see through the woods for some distance around me. 
Hero T kindled a fire, and roasted my ground-hog, which 



37G - THE ADVENTURES OP 

afforded me a most grateful repast^ after my late fasting, 
and severe toils. According to custom, my meal being 
over, I betook myself to sleep, and did not awake until 
the afternoon; when descending a few rods down the hill, 
and standing still to take a survey of the woods around 
me, I saw at a distance of a half mile from me, a man 
moving slowly about in the forest, and apparantly watch- 
ing, like myself, to see if any one was in view. Looking 
at this man attentively, I saw he was black, and that he 
did not move more than a few rods, from the same spot 
where I first saw him. Curiosity impelled me to know 
more of the condition of my neighbor; and descending 
quiet to the foot of the hill, I perceived that he had a 
covert of boughs of trees, under which I saw him pass, 
and after some time return again from his retreat. Ex- 
amining the appearance of things carefully, I became 
satisfied, that the stranger was, like myself, a negro slave ; 
and I determined, without more ceremony, to go and speak 
to him, for I felt no fear of being betrayed by one as 
badly off in the world as myself. 

When this man first saw me, at the distance of a hun- 
dred yards from him, he manifested great agitation, and 
at once, seemed disposed to run from me; but when I 
called to him, and told him not to be afraid, he became 
more assured, and waited for me to come close to him. I 
found him to be a dark mulatto, small and slender in 
person, and lame in one leg. He had been well bred, and 
possessed good manners, and fine address. I told him I 
was travelling, and presumed this was not his dwelling 
place, upon which he informed me, that he was a native 
of Kent county, in the state of Delaware, and had been 
brought up as a house servant by his master; who, on his 
death-bed, had made his will, and directed him to be set 



CHARLES BALL. 377 

free by his executors, at the age of twenty-five, and that 
in the mean time he should be hired out as a servant to 
some person, who would treat him well. Soon after the 
death of his master, the executors hired him to a man in 
Wilmington, who employed him as a waiter in his house, 
for three or four months, and then took him to a small 
town called Newport, and sold him to a man, who took 
him immediately to Baltimore, where he was again sold 
or transferred to another man, who brought him to South 
Carolina^ and sold him to a cotton planter, with whom he 
had lived more than two years, and had ran away three 
weeks before the time I saw him, with the intention of 
returning to Delaware. 

That being lame, and becoming fatigued by travelling, 
he had stopped here and made this shelter of boughs and 
bark of trees, under which he had remained more than a 
week, before I met him. He invited me to go into his 
camp, as he termed it, where he had an old skillet, more 
than a bushel of potatoes, and several fowls, all of which 
he said he had purloined from the plantations in the 
neighborhood. This encampment was in a level open 
wood, and it appeared surprising to me that its occupant 
had not been discovered, and conveyed back to his master, 
before this time. I told him that I thought he ran a 
risk of being taken up, by remaining here, and advised 
him to break up his lodge immediately, and pursue his 
journey, travelling only in the night time. He then pro- 
posed to join me, and travel in company with me; but 
this I declined on account of his lameness and great want 
of discretion, though I did not assign these reasons to him. 

I remained with this man two or three hours, and ate 
dinner of fowls dressed after his rude fashion. Before 
leaving him, I pressed upon him the necessity of immedi- 



378 THE ADVENTURES OF 

diately quitting the position he then occupied; but he 
said he intended to remain there a few days longer^ unless 
I would take him with me. 

On quitting my new acquaintance, I thought it prudent 
to change my place of abode for the residue of this day, 
and removed along the top of the hill that I occupied at 
least two miles, and concealed myself in a thicket until 
night, when returning to the road I had left in the morn- 
ing, and travelling hard all night, I came to a large stream 
of water, just at the break of day. As it was too late to 
pass the river with safety this morning, at this ford, I 
went half a mile higher, and swam across the stream, in 
open day light; at a place where both sides of the water 
were skirted woods. I had several large potatos that 
had been given to me, by the man at his camp in the 
woods, and these constituted my rations for this day. 

At the rising and setting of the sun, I took the bearing 
of the road by the course of the stream that I had crossed, 
and found that I was travelling to the north-west, instead 
of the north or north-east, to one of which latter points I 
wished to direct my march. 

Having perceived the country in which I now was, to 
be thickly peopled, I remained in my resting place, until 
night, when returning to the road, and crossing it, I took 
once more to the woods, with the stars for my guides, and 
steered for the north-east. This was a fortunate night for 
me in all respects. The atmosphere was clear, the ground 
was high, dry, and free from thickets. In the course of 
the night I passed several corn fields, with the corn still 
remaining in them, and passed a potato lot, in which 
large c(uantities of fine potatos were dug out of the ground, 
and lay in heaps, covered with vines; but my most signal 
good luck occurred just before day, when passing under a 



CHARLES BALL. 379 

dog-wood tree, and hearing a noise in the branches above 
me, I looked up and saw a large opossum amongst the 
berries, that hung upon the boughs. The game was 
quickly shaken down, and turned out as fat as a well fed 
pig, and as heavy as a full grown raccoon. My attention 
was now turned to searching for a place in which I could 
secrete myself for the day, and dress my provisions in 
quietness. 

This day was clear and beautiful, until the afternoon, 
when the air became damp, and the heavens were over- 
hung with clouds. The night that followed was dark as 
pitch, compelling me to remain in my camp all night. 
The next day brought with it a terrible storm of rain and 
wind, that continued with but little intermission, more 
than twenty-four hours, and the sun was not again visible 
until the third day; nor was there a clear night for more 
than a weak. During all this time I lay in my camp, 
and subsisted on the provisions I brought with me to this 
place. The corn and potatos looked so tempting, when I 
saw them in the fields, that I had taken more than I 
should have consumed, had not the bad weather compell- 
ed me to remain at this spot; but it was well for me, this 
time, that I had taken more than I could eat in one or 
two days. 

At the end of the cloudy weather, I felt much refreshed, 
and strengthened, and resumed my journey in high spirits, 
although I now began to feel the want of shoes; those 
which I wore when I left my mistress, having long since 
been worn out, and my boots were now beginning to fail 
so much, that I was obliged to wrap straps of hickory 
bark about my feet, to keep the leather horn seperating, 
and falling to pieces. 

It was now, by my computation, the first of November, 



380 THE ADVENTURES OF 

and I was yet iu the State of South Carolina. 1 begun 
to consider with myself, whether I had gained or lost by 
attempting to travel on the roads; and, after revolving in 
my mind all the disasters that had befallen me, determin- 
ed to abandon the roads altogether, for two reasons : the 
first of which was, that on the high-ways, I was constantly 
liable to meet persons, or to be overtaken by them; and 
a second, no less powerful, was, that as 1 did not know 
what roads to pursue, I was oftener travelling on the wrong 
route, than on the right one. 

Setting my face once more for the north star, I advanced, 
with a steady though slow pace, for four or five nights, 
when I was again delayed by dark weather, and forced to 
remain in idleness nearly two weeks; and when the 
weather again became clear, I was arrested, on the second 
night, by a broad and rapid river, that appeared so for- 
midable, that I did not dare to attempt its passage, until 
after examining it in day-light. On the succeeding night, 
however, I crossed it by swimming — resting at some large 
rocks near the middle. After gaining the north side of 
this river, which I believed to be the Catawba, I consider - 
myself in North Carolina, and again steered towards the 
North. 



CHAKLES BALL, 881 



CHAPTER XXIII 



The mouth of November is in all years, a season of 
clouds and vapours; but at the time of which I write, the 
good weather vanished early in the month, and all the 
clouds of the universe, seemed to have collected in North 
Carolina. From the second night after crossing the 
Catawba, I did not see the north star for the space of 
three weeks; and during all this time, no progress was 
made in my journey; although I seldom remained two 
days in the same place; but moved from one position to' 
another, for the purpose of eluding the observation of the 
people of the country, whose attention might have been 
attracted by the continual appearance of the smoke of my 
fires in one place. 

There had as yet been no hard frost, and the leaves 
were still on the oak trees, at the close of this cloudy 
weather; but the north-west wind, which dispelled the 
mist, also brought down nearly all the leaves of the forest, 
except those of the evergreen trees; and the nights now 
became clear, and the air keen with frost. Hitherto the 
oak woods had afforded me the safest shelter, but now I 
was obliged to seek for groves of young pines for to re- 
treat to at dawn. Heretofore I had found a plentifi>l sub-* 
sistence in every corn field and potato lot, that fell in my 
way; but now began to find some of the fields in which 
corn had grown, destitute of the corn, and containing 
nothing but the stalks. The potatos had all been taken 
out of the lots where they grew, except in some few in- 
stances, where they had been buried in the field; and the 

Gl 



382 THE ADVENTURES OF 

means of subsistence became every day more difiicult to 
be obtained; but as I bad fine weather, I made the best 
of those hours in which I dared to travel, and was con- 
stantly moving from a short time after dark until day- 
light. The toil that I underwent for the first half of the 
month ofT)ecember was excessive, and my sufi"erings for 
want of food were great. I was obliged to carry with me 
a stock of corn sufiicient to supply me for two or three 
days; for it frequently happened that I met with none in 
the fields for a long time. In the course of this period, I 
crossed innumerable streams, the greater portion of which 
were of small size, but some were of considerable mag- 
nitude, and in all of them the water had become almost 
as cold as ice. Sometimes I was fortunate enough to find 
boats or canoes tied at the side of the streams, and when 
this happened, I always made free use of that which no 
one else was using at the time, but this did not occur 
often, and I believe, that in these two weeks I swam over 
nine rivers, or streams so deep, that I could not ford them. 
The number of creeks and rivulets through which I waded, 
was far greater ; but I cannot now fix the number. 

In one of these fine nights, passing near the house of a 
planter, I saw several dry hides, hanging on poles under 
a shed. One of these hides I appropriated to myself, for 
the purpose of converting it into moccasins, to supply the 
place of my boots, which were totally worthless. By 
beating the dry hide with a stick, it was made sufficiently 
pliable to bear making into moccasins; of which I made 
for myself three pair, wearing one, and carrying the 
others on my back. 

One day as I lay in a pine thicket, several pigs, which 
appeared to be wild, having no marks on their ears, came 
near to me, and one of them approached so close, with- 



CHARLES BALL. 



383 



out seeing me, that I knocked it down with a stone, and 
succeeded in killing it. This pig was very fat, and would 
have weighed thirty, if not forty pounds. Feeling now 
greatly exhausted with the fatigues that I had lately 
undergone, and being in a very great forest, far removed 
from white inhabitants, I resolved to remain a few days 
in this place, to regale myself with the flesh of the pig, 
which I preserved by hanging it up in the shade, after 
cutting it into pieces. Fortune, so adverse to me hereto^ 
fore, seems to have been more kind to me at this time; 
for the very night succeeding the day on which I killed 
the pig, a storm of hail, snow, and sleet, came on, and 
continued fifteen or sixteen hours. The snow lay on tho 
ground four inches in depth, and the whole country was 
covered with a crust almost hard enough to bear a man. 
In this state of the weather I could not travel, and my 
stock of pork was invaluable to me. The pork was 
frozen where it hung on the branches of the trees, and 
was well preserved as if it had been buried in snow; but 
on the fourth day after the snow fell, the atmosphere un- 
derwent a great change. The wind blew from the south, 
and the snow melted away, the air became warm, and the 
sun shone with the brightness, and almost with the 
warmth of spring. It was manifest that my pork, which 
was now soft and oily, would not long be in a sound state. 
If I remained here, my provisions would become putrid 
on my hands in a short time, and compel me to quit my 
residence to avoid the atmosphere of the place. 

I resolved to pursue my journey, and prepared myself, 
by roasting before the fire, all my pork that was left, 
wrapping it up carefully in green pine leaves, and envel- 
oping the whole in a eort of close basket, that I made of 
small boughs of trees. Equipping myself for my jour- 



884 THE ADVENTURES OF 

ney, with my meat in my knapsack, I again took to the 
woods; with the stars for my guide, keeping the north-star 
over my left eye. 

The weather had now become exceedingly variable, and 
I was seldom able to travel more than half of the night. 
The fields were muddy, the low grounds in the woods 
were wet, and often covered with water, through which I 
was obliged to wade — the air was damp and cold by day, 
the nights were frosty, very often covering the water with 
ice an inch in thickness. From the great degree of cold 
that prevailed, I inferred, either that I was pretty far 
North, or that I had advanced too much to the left, and 
was aj)proaching the mountain country. 

To satisfy myself as far ^ as possible of my situation, one 
fair day, when the sky was. very clear, I climbed to the 
top of a pine-tree that stood on the summit of a hill, and 
took a wide survey of the region around me. Eastward, 
I saw nothing but a vast continuation of plantations, inter- 
vened by forests ; on the South, the faint beams of a win- 
ter sun, shed a soft lustre over the woods, which were 
dotted at remote distances, with the habitations of men, 
and the openings that they had made in the green cham- 
paign of the endless pine-groves, that nature had planted 
in the direction of the mid-day sun. On the North, at a 
great distance, I saw a tract of low and flat country, 
which, in my opinion, was the vale of some great river 
and beyond this, at the farthest stretch of vision, the eye 
was lost in the blue transparent vault, where the extrem- 
ity of the arch of the world touches the abode of perpet- 
ual winter. Turning wes-tward, the view passed beyond 
the region of pine-trees, which was followed afar off, by 
naked and leafless oaks, hickories and walnuts; and still 
beyond these, rose high in the air, elevated tracts of coun- 



CHARLES BALL. 385 

try, clad in the white livery of snow, and bearing the 
impress of mid-winter. 

It was now apparent that I had borne too far westward, 
and was within a few days travel of the mountains. Des- 
cending from my observations, I determined, on the return 
of night, to shape my course, for the future, nearly due 
east, until I should at least, be out of the mountains. 
According to my calendar, it was the day before Christ- 
mas, that I ascended the pine-tree ; and I believe I was at 
that time in the north-western part of North Carolina, not 
far from the banks of the Yadkin river. On the follow- 
ing night, I travelled from dark, until, as I supposed, 
about three or four o'clock in the morning, when I came 
to a road which led, as I thought, in an easterly direction. 
This road I travelled until daylight, and encamped near it 
in an old field, overgrown with young pines, and holly- 
trees. 

This was Christmas-day, and I celebrated it by break- 
fasting on fat pork, without salt, and substituted parched 
corn for bread. In the evening, the weather became 
cloudy and cold, and when night came, it was so dark, 
that I found difficulty in keeping in the road, at some 
points where it made short angles. Before midnight, it 
began to snow, and at break of day, the snow lay more 
than a foot deep. This compelled me to seek winter quar- 
ters ; and fortunately, at about half a mile from the road, 
I found, on the side of a steep hill, a shelving rock that 
formed a dry covert, with a southern prospest. 

Under this rock, I took refuge, and kindling a fire of 
dry sticks, considered myself happy, to possess a few 
pounds of my roasted pork, and more than half a gallon 
of corn that I carried in my pockets. The snow continu- 
ed falling, until it was full two feet deep around me, and 
Gl* 



38G TWE ADVENTURES OF 

the clanger of exposing myself to discovery^ by my tracks 
in the snow, compelled me to keep close to my hiding 
place until the third day, when I ventured to go back to 
the road, which I found broken by the passage of numer- 
ous wagons, sleds and horses, and so much beaten, that I 
could travel it with ease at night, the snow affording good 
light. 

Accordingly, at night I again advanced on my way, 
which indeed I was obliged to do, for my corn was quite 
gone, and not more than a pound of my pork remained to 
me. I travelled hard through the night, and after the 
morning star rose, came to a river, which I think must 
have been the Yadkin. It appeared to be about two hun- 
dred yards wide, and the water ran with great rapidity in 
it. 

Waiting until the eastern horizon was tinged with the 
first rays of the morning light, I entered the river at the 
ford, and waded until the water was nearly three feet 
deep, when it felt as if it was cutting the flesh from the 
bones of my limbs, and a large cake of ice floating down- 
wai'd, forced me off my balance, and I was near falling. 
My courage failed me, and I returned to the shore; but 
found the pain that already tormented me, greatly increas- 
ed, when I was out of the water, and exposed to the ac- 
tion of the open air. Returning to the river, I plunged 
into the current to relieve me from the pinching frost, 
that gnawed every part of my skin that had become wet; 
and rushing forward as fast as the weight of the water, 
that pressed me downward, would permit, was soon up to 
my chin in melted ice, when rising to the surface, I exer- 
ted my utmost strength and skill, to gain the opposite 
shore by swimming, in the shortest space of time. At 
every stroke of my arms and legs, they were cut and 



CHARLES BALL. 387 

bruised by cakes of solid ice, or weighed down by floating 
masses of congealed snow. 

It is impossible for human life to be long sustained in 
such an element as that which encompassed me ; and I 
had not been afloat five minutes before I felt chilled in all 
my members, and in less than the double of that time, my 
limbs felt numbed, and my hands became stiff", and almost 
powerless. 

When at the distance of thirty feet from the shore, my 
body was struck by a violent current, produced by a pro- 
jecting rock above me, and driven with resistless violence 
down the stream. Wholly unable to contend with the 
fury of the waves, and penetrated by the coldness of 
death, in my inmost vitals, I gave myself up for lost, and 
was commending my soul to Grod, whom I expected to be 
my immediate judge, when I perceived the long hanging 
branch of a large tree, sweeping to and fro, and undula- 
ting backward and forward, as its extremities were washed 
by the surging current of the river, just below me. In a 
moment I was in contact with the tree, and making the 
eff"ort of despair, seized one of its limbs. Bowed down by 
the weight of my body, the branch yielded to the power 
of the water, which rushing against my person, swept me 
round like the quadrant of a circle, and dashed me against 
the shore, where clinging to some roots that grew near the 
bank, the limb of the tree left me, and springing with 
elastic force to its? former position, again dipped its slender 
branches in the mad stream. 

Crawling out of the water, and being once more on dry 
land, I found my circumstances little less desperate, than 
when I was struggling with the floating ice. The morn- 
ing was frosty, and icicles hung in long pendant groups 
from the trees along the shore of the river, and the hoar 



388 THE ADVENTURES OF 

frost glistened in sparkling radiance, upon the polished 
surface of the smooth snow, as it . whitened all the plain 
before ine, and spread its chill but beauftful covering 
through the woods. 

There were three alternatives before me, one of which 
I knew must quickly be adopted. The one was to obtain 
a fire, by which I could dry and warm my stiifened limbs; 
the second was to die, without the fire ; the third, to go 
to the first house, if 1 could reach one, and surrender 
myself as a runaway slave. 

Staggering, rather than walking forward, until I gained 
the cover of a wood, at a short distance from the river, I 
turned into it, and found that a field bordered the wood 
within less than twenty rods of the road. Within a few 
yards of this fence, I stopped, and taking out my fire ap- 
paratus, to my unspeakable joy, found them dry and in 
perfect safety. With the aid of my spunk, and some dry 
moss gathered from the fence, a small flame was obtained, 
to which dry leaves being added, from the boughs of a 
white oak tree, that had fallen before the frost of the last 
autumn had commenced, I soon had fire of sufficient inten- 
sity, to consume dry wood, with which I supplied it^ 
partly from the fence, and partly from the branches of the 
fallen tree. Having raked away the snow from about the 
fire, by the time the sun was up, my frozen clothes were 
smoking before the coals — warming first one side and then 
the other — I felt the glow of returning life, once more 
invigorating my blood, and giving animation to my frozen 
limbs. 

The public road was near me on one hand, and an en- 
closed field was before me on the other, but in my present 
condition, it was impossible for me to leave this place to. 
day, without danger of perishing in the woods, or of being 



CHARLES BALL. .389 

arrested on the road. As evening came on, the air became 
much colder than it was in the forenoon, and after night 
the wind rose high, and blew from the north-west, with 
intense keenness. My limbs were yet stiff from the 
effects of my morning adventure * and to complete my dis- 
tress, I was totally without provisions, having left a few 
ears of corn, that I had in my pocket, on the other side 
of the river. 

Leaving my fire in the night, and advancing into the 
field near me, I discovered a house at some distance, and 
as there was no light, or sign of fire about it, I determined 
to reconnoitre the premises, which turned out to be a small 
barn, standing alone, with no other inhabitants about it, 
than a few cattle and a flock of sheep. After much trou- 
ble, I succeeded in entering the barn, by starting the nails 
that confined one of the boards at the corner. Entering 
the house, I found it nearly filled with corn, in .the husks^ 
and some from which the husks had been removed^ was 
lying in a heap in one corner. . 

Into these husks I crawled, and covering myself (ieeply 
under them, soon became warm, and fell into a profound 
sleep, from which I was awakened by the ,nojse of people 
walking about in the barn, and talking of the cattle and 
sheep, which it appeared they , had come to feed, for they 
soon commenced working in the <)or^ husks, with which I 
was covered, and throwing them out to the cattle. I exr 
pected at every moment that they would uncover me; but 
fortunately, before they saw me, they ceased their opera- 
tions, and went to work, some husking corn and throwing 
the husks on the pile over me, while others were employed 
in loading the husked corn into carts, as I learned by their 
conversation, and hauling it away to the house. The peo- 
ple continued working in the barn all day, and in the 



390 ' THE ADVENTUBES OF 

evening gave more husks to the cattle and went home. 
Waiting two or three hours after my visiters were gone, 
I rose from the pile of husks, and filling my pockets with 
ears of corn, issued from the barn, at the same place by 
which I had entered it, and returned to the woods, where 
I kindled a fii*e in a pine thicket, and parched more than 
half a gallon of corn. Before day, T returned to the barn, 
and again secreted myself in the corn husks. In the 
morning, the people again returned to their work, and 
husked corn until the evening. At night, I again repair- 
ed to the woods, and parched more corn. In this manner 
1 passed more than a month, lying in the barn all day) 
and going to the woods at night; but at length the corn 
was all husked, and I watched daily, the progress that ■ 
was made in feeding the cattle with the husks, knowing 
that I must quit my winter retreat, before the husks were 
exhausted. Before the husked corn was removed from the 
barn, I had conveyed several bushels of the ears into the 
husks, near my bed, and concealed them for my winter's 
stock. 

Whilst I lay in this barn, there were frequent and great 
changes of weather. The snow that covered the earth to -j 
the depth of two feet, when I came here, did not remain 
more than ten days, and was succeeded by more than a 
week of warm rainy weather, which was in turn suc- 
ceeded by several days of dry weather, with cold high 
winds from the north. The month of February was 
cloudy and damp, with several squalls of snow and fre- 
quent rains. About the first of March, the atmosphere 
became clear and dry, and the winds boisterous from the 
west. 

On the third of this month, having filled my little bag 
and all my pockets with parched corn, I quitted my 



CHARLES BALL. 891 

winter quarters about ten o'clock at night, and again 
proceeded on my way to the north, leaving a large heap 
of corn husks still lying in the corner of the barn. On 
leaving this place, I again pursued the road that had led 
me to it, for several nights } crossing many small streams 
in my way, all of which I was able to pass without swim- 
ming, though several of them were so deep, that they wet 
me as high as my arm-pits. This road led nearly north- 
east, and was the only road that I had fallen in with, 
since I left Georgia, that had maintained that direction 
for so great a distance. Nothing extraordinary befel me 
until the twelfth of March, when venturing to turn out 
earlier than usual in the evening, and proceeding along 
the road, I found that my way led me down a hill, along 
the side of which the road had been cut into the earth ten 
or twelve feet in depth, having steep banks on each side, 
which were now so damp and slippery, that it was im- 
possible for a man to ascend either the one or the other. 

Whilst in this narrow place, I heard the sound of horses 
proceeding up the hill to meet me. Stopping to listen, 
in a moment almost two horsemen were close before me 
trotting up the road. To escape on either hand was im- 
possible, and to retreat backwards w^ould have exposed 
me to certain destruction. Only one means of salvation 
was left, and I embraced it. Near the place where I stood, 
was a deep gully cut in one side of the road, by the water 
which had run down here in time of rains. Into this 
gully I threw myself, and lay down close to the ground, 
the horsemen rode almost over me, and passed on. When 
then they were gone I arose, and descending the hill, found 
a river before me. 

In crossing this stream, I was compelled to swim at 
lyast two hundred jstxds ; and found the cold so opprcs- 



392 THE ADVENTURES OF 

give, after coming out of the water, that I was forced to 
stop at the first thick woods that I could find, and make 
a fire to dry myself. T did not move again until the next 
night; and on the fourth night after this, came to a great 
river, which I suppose was the Roanoke. I was obliged 
to swim this stream, and was carried a great way down 
by the rapidity of the current. It must have been more 
than an hour from the time that I entered the water, 
until I reached the opposite shore, and as the rivers were 
yet very cold, I suffered greatly at this place. 

Judging by the aspect of the country, I believed my- 
self to be at this time in Virginia; and was now reduced 
to the utmost extremity, for want of provisions. The 
corn that I had parched at the barn, and brought with me, 
was nearly exhausted, and no more was to be obtained in 
the fields, at this season of the year. For three or four 
days I allowed myself only my two hands full of parched 
corn per day; and after this I travelled three days with- 
out tasting food of any kind; but being nearly exhausted 
with hunger, I one nigiit entered an old stack yard, 
hoping that I might fall in with pigs, or poultry of some 
kind. I fourid instead of these, a stack of oats, which 
had not been threshed. From this stack I look as much 
oats in the sheaf as I could carry, and going on a few 
miles, stopped in a pine forest, made a' large fire, and 
parched at least half a gallon of oats, aft^r rubbing the 
grain from the straw. After the grain was parched, I 
again rubbed it in my hands, to separate it from the 
husks, and spent the night in feasting on parched oats. 

The weather was now becoming quite warm, though 
the water was cold in the rivers ; and I preceived the 
farmers had every where ploughed their fields, prepara- 
tory to planting corn. Every night I saw people burning 



CHARLES BALL. % S^S 

brusli in the new grounds, that they were clearing of the 
wood and brush; and when the day came, in the morning 
after I obtained the oats, I perceived people planting corn 
in a field about half a mile from my fire. According to 
my computation of time, it was on the night of the last 
day of March that I obtained the oats ; and the appearance 
of the country satisfied me, that I had not lost many days 
in my reckoning. 

I lay in this pine wood two days, for the purpose of 
recruiting my strength, after my long fast ; and when I 
again resumed my journey, determined to seek some large 
road leading towards the north, and follow it in future; 
the one that I had been pursuing of late, not appearing to 
be a principal highway of the country. For this purpose, 
striking off across the fields, in an eastern direction, I 
travelled a few hours, and was fortunate enough to come 
to a great road, which was manifestly much travelled, 
leading towards the north-east. 

My bag was now replenished with more than a gallon 
of parched oats, and I had yet one pair of moccasins made 
of raw hide ; but my shirt was totally gone, and my last 
pair of trowsers was now in actual service. A tolerable 
waistcoat still remained to me, and my great coat, though 
full of honorable scars, was yet capable of much service. 
Having resolved to pursue the road I was now in, it was 
necessary again to resort to the utmost degree of caution 
to prevent surprise. Travelling only after it was dark, 
and taking care to stop before the appearance of day, my 
progress was not rapid, but my safety was preserved. 
The acquisition of food had now become difiicult, and when 
my oats began to fail, I resorted to the dangerous expedi- 
ent of attacking* a corn crib of a planter that was ^ear the 
road. The house was built of round logs, and was covered 
HI 



394 TfiE ADVENTURES OP 



with boardw. One of tlacsc boards I succeeded in remov- 
ing, on the side of the crib opposite from the dwelling, 
and by thrusting my arm downwards, was able to reach 
the corn; of which I took as much as filled my bag, the 
pockets of my great coat, and a large handkerchief that I 
had preserved through all the vicisitudes of mj journey. 
This opportune supply of corn furnished me with food more 
than a week, and before it was consumed, I reached the 
Appomattox river, which I crossed in a canoe that I found 
tied at the shore, a few miles above the town of Petersburg. 
Having approached Petersburg in the night, I was 
afraid to attempt to pass through it, lest the patrol should 
fall in with me; and turning to the left through the 
country, reached the river and crossed it in safety. 

The great road leading to Ptichmond, is so distinguish- 
ingly laarked above the other ways in this part of Virginia, 
that there was no difficulty in following it, and on the 
third night after passing Petersburg, I obtained a sight 
of the capital of Virginia. It was only a little after mid- 
night when the city presented itself to my sight; but here 
as well as at Petersburg, I was afraid to attempt to go 
through the town, under cover of darkness, because of the 
patrol. Turning, therefore, back into a forest about two 
jniles from the sm^' town on the south side of the river, 
I lay there until after twelve o'clock in the day, when 
loosening the package from my back, and taking it in my 
hand in the form of a bundle, I advanced into the village, 
as if I had only come from some plantation in the neigh- 
borhood. 

This was on Sunday, I believe, though according to my 
computation, it was Monday; but it must have been Sun- 
day : for the village was quiet, and in passing it, I only 
saw two or three persons, whom I passed as if I had not 



CHARLES BALL. ' 395 

seen them. No one spoke to me, and I gained the l)nd^e 
in safety, and crossed it without attracting the lea^t at- 
tention. 

Entering the city of Richmond, I kept along the prin- 
cipal street, walking at a slow pace, and turning my head 
from side to side, as if much attracted by the objects 
around me. Few persons were in the street, and I was 
careful to appear more attentive to the houses than to the 
people. At the upper end of the city, I saw a great crowd 
of ladies and gentlemen, who were, I believe, returning 
from church. Whilst these people were passing me, I 
stood in the street, on the outside of the foot pavement, 
with my face turned to the opposit^e side of the street. 
They aH went by without taking any notice of me; and 
when they were gone, I again resumed my leisure 
walk along the pavement, and reached the utmost limit of 
the town without being accosted by any one. As soon as 
1 was clear of the city I quickened my pace, assumed the 
air of a man in great haste, sometimes actually ran, and 
in less than an hour, was safely lodged in the thickest 
part of the woods that lay on the north of Richmond, and 
full four miles from the river. This was the boldest ex- 
ploit that I had performed since leaving my mistress; ex- 
cept the visit I paid to the gentleman in Georgia, 

My corn was now failing; but as I had once entered a 
crib secretly, I felt but little apprehension on account 
of future supplies. After this time I never wanted corn, 
and did not again suffer by hunger, until I reached the 
place of my nativity. 

After leaving Richmond, I again kept al^ng the great 
road by which I had travelled on my way South, taking 
great care not to expose my person unnecessarily. For^ 
several nights X saw no white people on the way, but wa 



-596 TMB ALTENTURES OF 

often met by black oneS; whom I ayoided by turning out 
of tlie road; but one moonlight night, five or six days 
after I left Richmond, a man stepped out of the woods, 
almost at my side, and accosting me in a familiar manner^ 
q^ked me which way I was travelling, how long I had 
been on the road, and made many inquiries concerning 
the course of my late journey. This man was a mulatto^ 
and carried a heavy cane, or rather club, in his hand. I 
did not like his appearance, and the idea of a familiar con- 
versation with any one seemed to terrify me. I deter- 
mined to watch my companion closely; and he appeared 
equally intent on observing me; but at the same time 
that he talked with me, he was constantly drawing closer 
to, and following behind me. This conduct increased my 
suspicion and I began to wish to get rid of him ; but 
could not at the moment imagine how I shoidd effect my 
purpose. To avoid him, I crossed the road several times; 
but he still follov/ed me closely. The moon, which shone 
brightly upon our backs, cast his shadow far before me, 
and enabled me to perceive his motions with the utmost 
accuracy, without turning my head toward him. He car- 
ried his club under his left arm, and at length raised his 
right hand gently, took the stick by the end, and draw- 
ing it slowly over his head, was in the very act of striking 
a blow at me, when, springing backward, and raising my 
own staff at the same moment, I brought him to the 
ground by a stroke on his forehead; and when I had him 
down, beat him over the back and sides, with my weapon, 
until he roared for mercy, and begged me not to kill him. 
I left him in no condition to pursue me, and hastened on 
my way, resolved to get as far from him before day, as my 
legs would carry me. 

This man was undoubtedly one of those wretches, who 



CHARLES BALL 89T 

are employed by wliite men to kidnap and betray such un- 
fortunate people of color as may chance to fall into their 
hands; but for once the deceiver was deceived, and he 
who intended to make prey of me had well nigh fallen a 
sacrifice himself. 

The same night I crossed the Pammunky river, near the 
village of Hanover, by swimming, and secreted myself 
before day in a dense ceder thicket. The next night, 
^i^fter I had travelled several miles, in ascending a hill, I 
^V the head of a man rise on the opposite side, without 
having heard any noise. I instantly ran into the woods, 
and concealed myself behind a large tree. The traveller 
was on horseback, and the road being sandy, and his horso 
moving only at a walk, I had not heard his approach 
until I saw him. He also saw me; for wnen he came 
opposite the place where I stood, he stopped his horse in 
the road, and desired me to tell him how far it was to 
some place, the name of which I have forgotten. As I 
made no answer, he again repeated the iufiuiry ; and then 
said, I need not be afraid to speak, as he did not wish to 
hurt me; but no answer being given him, ho at last said 
I might as well speak, and rode on. 

Before day, I reached the Matapony river, and crossed 
it by wading; but knowing that I was not far from Mary- 
land, I fell into great indiscretion, and forgot the wariness 
and caution that had enabled me to overcome obstacles 
apparantly insurmountable. Anxious to get forward, I 
neglected to conceal myself before day ; but travelled until 
day break before I sought a place of concealment, and 
unfortunately, when I looked for a hiding place none was 
at hand. This compelled me to keep on the road, until 
grey twilight, for the purpose of reaching a wood that was 
in view befoje me ; but to gain this wood I was obliged 
s^ HI* 



398 THE ADVENTURES OF 

to pass a house, that stood at the road side, and when 
only about fifty yards beyond the house, a white man 
opened the door, and seeing me in the road, called to me 
to stop. As his order was not obeyed, he set his dog 
upon me. The dog was quickly vanquished by my stick, 
and setting off to run at full speed, I at the same moment 
heard the report of a gun, and received its contents in my 
legs, chiefly about and in my hams. I fell on the road, 
and was soon surrounded by several persons, who it ap^i|^ 
peared were a party of patrollers, who had gathered tWf^ 
gether in this house. They ordered me to cross my 
hands, which order not being immediately obeyed, they 
beat me with sticks and stones until I was almost sense- 
less, and entirely unable to make resistance. They theu 
bound me with cords, and dragged me by the feet back to 
the house, and threw me into the kitchen, like a dead 
dog. One of my eyes was almost beaten out, and the 
blood was running from my mouth, nose and ears; but in 
this condition they refused to wash the blood from my 
face, or even to give me a drink of water. 

In a short time, a justice of the peace arrived and when 
he looked at me, ordered me to be unbound, and to have 
water to wash myself, and also bread to eat. This man's 
heart appeared not to be altogether void of sensibility, for he 
reprimanded, in harsh terms, those who had beaten me ; 
told them that their conduct was brutal, and that it would 
have been more humane to kill me outright, than to bmise 
and mangle me in the manner they had done. 

He then inteirogated me as to my name, place of abode, 
and place of destination, and afterwards demanded the 
name of my master. To all these inquiries, I made no 
reply, except that I was going to Maryland, where I lived. 
The justice told me it was his duty, under the law to send 



CHARLES BALL. 899 

me to jail; and I was immediately put into a cart, and 
carried to a small village called Bowling Green, which I 
reached before ten o'clock. 

There I was locked up in the jail, and a doctor came to 
examine my legs, and extract tha shot from my wounds. 
In the course of the operation he took out thirty-four 
duck shot, and after dressing my legs left me to my own 
reflections. No fever followed in the train of my dis- 
asters, which I attributed to the reduced state of my blood 
by long fasting, and the fatigues I had undergone. 

In the afternoon the jailor came to see me, and brought 
with him my daily allowance of provisions and a jug of 
water. The provisions consisted of more than a pound of 
corn bread, and some boiled bacon. As my appetite was 
good, I immediately devoured more than two thirds of 
this food, but reserved the rest for supper. 

For several days I was not able to stand, and in this 
period found great difficulty in performing the ordinary 
offices of life for myself, no one coming to give me any 
aid; but I did not suffer for want of food, the daily al- 
lowance of the jailor being quite sufficient to appease the 
cravings of hunger. After I grew better, and was able 
to walk in the jail, the jailor frequently called to see me, 
and endeavored to prevail on me to tell where I had corns 
from; but in this undertaking he was no more successful 
than the justice had been, in the same business. 

I remained in the jail more than a month, and in this 
time became quite fat and strong, but saw no way by 
which I could escape. The jail was of brick, the floors 
were of solid oak boards, and the door of the same ma- 
terial, was secured by iron bolts, let into its posts, and 
connected together by a strong band of iron, reaching 
from the one to the other. 



400 THE ADVENTURES OF 

Every thing. appeared sound and strong, and to add io 
my security, my feet were chained together, from the 
time my wounds were healed. This chain I acquired the 
knowledge of removing from my feet, by working out of 
its socket a small iron pin that secured the bolt, that held 
the chain around one of my legs. 

The jailor came to see me with great regularity, every 
morning and evening, but remained only a few minutes 
when he -came, leaving me entirely alone at all other 
times. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

When I had been in prison thirty-nine days, and had 
quite recovered from the wounds that I had received, the 
jailer was late in coming to me with my breakfast, and 
going to the door, I began to beat against it with my fist, 
for the purpose of making a noise. After beating some 
time against the door, I happened, by mere accident, to 
strike my fist against one of the posts, which, to my sur- 
prise, I discovered by its sound, to be a mere hollow shell 
encrusted with a thin coat of sound timber, and as I struck 
it, the rotten wood crumbled to pieces within. On a more 
careful examination of this post, I became satisfied that I 
could easily split it to pieces, by the aid of the iron bolt 
that confined my feet. The jailer came with my breakfast 
and reprimanded me for making a noise. This day ap. 
peared as long to me, as a week had done heretofore j but 
night came at length, and as soon as the room in which I 



CHAllLES BALL. 401 

ViM confined, liad become quite dark, I disentangled my- 
self from the irons with which I was bound, and with the 
aid of the long bolt, easily wrenched from its place, the 
large staple that held one end of the bar, that lay across 
the door. The hasps that held the lock in its place, were 
drawu away almost without force, and the door swung 
open of its own weight. 

I now walked out into the jail-yard, and found that all 
was quiet, and that only a few lights were burning in the 
village windows. At first, I walked slowly along the road, 
but soon quickened my pace, and ran along the high-way, 
until I was more than a mile from the jail, then taking to 
the woods, I travelled all night, in a northern direction. 
At the approach of day, I concealed myself in a cedar 
thicket, where I lay until the next evening, without any- 
thing to eat. 

On the second night after my escape, I crossed the 
Potomac, at Hoe's ferry, in a small boat that I found tied 
at the side of the ferry flat; and on the night following 
crossed the Patuxent, in a canoe, which I found chained 
at the shore. 

About one o'clock in the morning, I came to the door 
of liiy wife's cabin, and stood there, I believe, more than 
five minutes, before I could summon sufficient fortitude to 
knock. I at length rapped lightly on the door, and was 
immediately asked, in the well-known voice of my wife, 
^'wuo is there V — I replied, ^'Charles." She then came 
to the door, and opening it slowly, said, ^'Who is this that 
speaks so much like my husband? I then rushed into 
the cabin and made myself known to her, but it was some 
time before I could convince her, that I was really her 
husband, returned from Georgia. The children were then 
called up, but they had forgotten mc. 



402 THE ADVENTURES OF 

When I attempted to take thein in my arms, they fled 
from me, and took refage under the bed of their mother. 
My eldest boy, who was four years old when I was carried 
away, still retained some recollections of once having had 
a father, but could not believe that I was that father. My 
wife, who at first was overcome by astonishment at seeing 
me again in her cabin, and was incapable of giving credit 
to the fidelity of her own vision, after I had been in the 
house a few minutes, seemed to awake from a dream ; and 
gathering all three of her children in her arms, thrust 
them into my lap, as I sat in the corner, clapped her 
hands, laughed and cried by turns; and in her ecstacy 
forgot to give me any supper, until I at length told her 
that I was hungry. Before I entered the house I felt as 
if I could eat anything in the shape of food; but now 
that I attempted to eat, my appetite had fled, and I sat up 
all night with my wife and children. 

When on my journey I thought of nothing but getting 
home, and never reflected, that when at home, I might 
still be in danger • but now that my toils were ended, I 
began to consider with myself how T could appear in 
safety in Calvert county, where everybody must know 
that I was a runaway slave. With my heart thrilling 
with joy, when I looked upon my wife and children, who 
had ngt hoped ever to behold me again ; yet fearful of 
the coming of daylight, which must expose me to be ar- 
rested as a fugitive slave, I passed the night between the 
happiness of the present and the dread of the future. In 
all the toils, dangers and suff^erings of my long journey, 
my courage had never forsaken me. The hope of again 
seeing my wife and little ones, had borne me triumphantly 
through perils, that even now I reflect upon, as upon some 
extravagant dream; but when I found myself at rest un- 



J 



CHARLES BALL. 408 

der the same roof with my family, the object of my labors 
attained, and no motive to arouse my energies, or give them 
the least impulse, that firmness of resolution which had 
so long sustained me, suddenly vanished from my bosom ; 
and I passed the night, with my children around me, op- 
pressed by a melancholy foreboding of my future destiny. 
The idea that I was utterly unable to aiford protection and 
safeguard to my own family, and was myself even more 
helpless than they, tormented my bosom with alternate 
throbs of affection and fear, until the dawn broke in the 
East, and summoned me to decide upon my future conduct. 

When morning came, I went to the great house, and 
showed myself to my wife's master and mistress who 
treated me with great kindness, and gave me a good break- 
fast. Mr. Symmes at first advised me to conceal myself, 
but soon afterwards told me to go to work in the neigh- 
borhood for wages. I continued to hire myself about 
among the farmers, until after the war broke out; and 
until Commodore Barney came into the Patuxent with his 
flotilla, when I entered on board one of his barges, and 
was employed sometimes in the capacity of a seaman, and 
sometimes as cook of the barge. 

I had been on board, only a few days, when the British, 
fleet entered the Patuxent, and forced our flotilla high up 
the river. I was present when the flotilla was blown up, 
and assisted in the performance of that operation upon the 
barge that I was in. The guns and the principal part of 
the armament of the flotilla, were sunk in the river and 
lost. 

I marched with the troops of Barney, from Benedict 
to Bladensburg, and travelled nearly the whole of the 
distance, through heavy forests of timber, or numerous 
and dense cedar thickets. It is my opinion, that if (-ren- 



404 THE ADVENTURES OP 

eral AYinder had marched the half of the troops tl.ftt ii3 
had at Bladensburg, down to the lower part of Prince 
George county, and attacked the British in these woods 
and cedar thickets, not a man of them would ever have 
reached Bladensburg. 

I feel confident, that in the country through v/nich I 
marched, one hundred Americans would have destroyed 
a thousand ot the enemy, by felling trees across the road, 
and attacking them in ambush. When we reached Bla- 
densburg, and the flotilla men were drawn up in line, to 
work at their canon, armed with their cutlasses, I volun- 
teered to assist in working the canon, that occupied the 
first place on the left of the Commodore. We had a full 
and perfect view of the British army, as it advanced along 
the road, leading to the bridge over the East Branch; and 
I could not but admire the handsome manner in v»hioh the 
British officers led on their fatigued and worn-out soldiers. 
I thought then, and think yet, that General Ross Wc^s one 
of the finest looking men that I ever saw on horseback. 

I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, 
when he ordered us to retreat, as 1 was told by the officer 
who commanded our gun. If the militia regiments, that 
lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to 
charge the British in close fight, as they crossed the 
bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them 
in a short time; but the militia ran like sheep chased by 
dogs. 

My readers will not, perhaps, condemn me, if I here 
make a short digression from my main narrative, to give 
some account of the part that I took in the war, on the 
shores of the Chesapeake, and the Patuxent. I did not 
enlist with Commodore Barney until the month of Decem- 
ber, 1813 ; but as I resided in Calvert county, in the sum- 



CHAKLKS BALL. 405 

mer of 1813, I had an opportunity of witnessing many of 
the evils that followed in the train of war, before I assu- 
med the profession of arms myself. 

In the spring of the year 1813, the British fleet camo 
into the bay, and from this time, the origin of the trou- 
bles and distresses of the people of the Western Shore, 
may be dated. I had been employed at a fishery, near 
the mouth of the Patux£nt, from early in March, until 
the latter part of May, when a British vessel of war came 
off the mouth of the river, and sent her boats up to drive 
us away from our fishi^ ground. There was but little 
property at the fishery that could be destroyed ; but the 
enemy cut the seines to pieces, and burned the sheds be- 
longing to the place. They then marched up two miles 
into the country, burned the house of a planter, and 
brought away with them several cattle, that were found in 
his fields. They also carried off more than twenty slaves, 
which were never again restored to their owner ; although, 
on the following day, he went on board the ship, with a 
flag of truce, and offered a large ransom for these slaves. 

These were the first black people whom I had known to 
desert to the British, although the practice was afterwards 
80 common. In the course of this summer, and the sum- 
mer of 1814, several thousand black people deserted from 
their masters and mistresses, and escaped to the British 
fleet. None of these people weie ever regained by their 
owners, as the British naval officers treated them as free 
people, and placed them on the footing of military de- 

serters. 

In the fall of this year, a lady by the name of Wilson, 

who owned more than a hundred slaves, lost them all in 

one night, except one man, who had a wife and several 

children on an adjoining estate, and as he could not take 

II 



^^^ THE ADVENTURES OF 

his family with him, on account of the rigid guard that 
was kept over them, he refused to go himself 

The slaves of Mrs. Wilson eifected their escape in the 
following manner. Two or three of the men having 
agreed amongst themselves, that they would runaway and 
go to the fleet, they stole a canoe one night, and went off 
to the sh.p that lay nearest the shore. When on board 
they mformed the officer of the.ship, that their mistress 
owned more than a hundred other slaves, whom they had 
left behmd them. They were then advised ro return 
home, and remain there until tbe next night, and then 

tation-the officer promising that he would send a detach- 
rnent of boats to the shore, to bring them off Ss 
advice was followed, and the fugitives returned before day 
to their cabms, on the plantation of their mistress 

On the next night, having communicated their plans to 
some of their fellow-slaves, they rose about midni/ht, and 
partly by persuasion, partly by compulsion, carried off all 
m n rV" "^^P'^^'^'i-. -itt the exception oflbe 
man already named When they reached the beach, they 
tmdled a fire, as had been concerted with the British 
officer, and the boats of the fleet came off, and rem ved 
this whole party on board. In the morning, when the 

to the field he found only empty cabins in the quarter, 
Ms fenrf "'° """'''''^' '" *^" ^"^^^ '^^^ ^-- of 
This was the greatest disaster that had befallen any in- 
dmdua ,n our neighborhood, in the course of the war- 
gether, for the purpose of endeavoring to devise some 



i 



CHARLES BALL. 407 

means of recovering the fugitive slaves. Their consulta- 
tions ended in sending a deputation of gentlemen on board 
the fleet, with a flag of truce, to solicit the restoration of 
the deserters, either as a matter of favor, or for such ran- 
som as might -be agreed upon. Strong hopes were enter- 
tain(^, that the runaways might be induced voluntarily to 
return to the service of their mistress, as she had never 
treated them with great severity. 

To accomplish, if p©ssible, this latter end, I was spoken 
to, to go along with the flag of truce, in the assumed char- 
acter of the servant of one of the gentlemen who bore it ; 
but in the. real character of the advocate of the mistress, 
for the purpose of inducing her slaves to return to her 
service. 

We went on board the ship in the afternoon, and I 
observed, that the gentlemen who went with me, were re- 
ceived by the British officers with very little ceremony. 
The captain did not show himself on deck, nor were the 
gentlemen invited into his cabin. They were shown into 
a large square room under the first deck of the ship, which 
was a 74, and here, a great number of officers came to 
talk to them, and ask them questions concerning the war, 
and the state of the country. 

The whole of the runaways were on board this ship, 
lounging about on the main deck, or leaning against the 
sides of the ship's bulwarks. I went amongst them, and 
talked to them a long time, on the subject of returning 
home; but found that their heads were full of notions of 
liberty and happiness in some of the West India islands. 

In the afternoon, all the gentlemen, except one, retur- 
ned home in the boat that they had come off in. The 
gentleman who remained on board, was a young man of 
pleasing manners and lively conversation, who appeared. 



408 THE ADVENTURES OF 

even before tlie other gentlemen -who had come with the 
flag had left the ship, to have become quite a favorite with 
the younger British officers Permission was obtained of 
the British captain, for this young gentleman to remain 
on board a few days, for the purpose, as he alleged, of 
seeing the curiosities of the ship. He had permission to 
retain me with him as his seivant; and I was instructed 
to exert myself to the utmost, to prevail on the runaway 
slaves to return to their mistress. The ship lay at anchor 
off the shore of Calvert county, until the second night 
after I came on board, when, from some cause which I 
was not able to understand, this ship and all the rest of 
the fleet, got under weigh, and stood down the Bay to the 
neighborhood of Tangier Islands, where she again cast 
anchor, soon after sunrise the next morning, in ten fath- 
oms water. I was now at least seventy or eighty miles 
from home, in a ship of the public enemies of the coun- 
try, and liable to be carried off to sea, and to be conveyed 
to the most distant part of the world. 

To increase my alarm, about noon of this day, a sloop 
of war cast anchor under the stern of our ship ; and all 
the black people that were with us, were immediately 
removed on board the sloop. I was invited, and even 
urged to go with the others, who, I was told, were bound 
to the Island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, where they 
would have lands given to them, and where they were to 
be free. I returned many thanks for their kind offers ; 
but respectfully declined them ; telling those who made 
them, that I was already a freeman, and though I owned 
no land myself, yet I could have plenty of land of other 
people to cultivate. 

In the evening, the sloop weighed anchor, and stood 
down the Bay, with more than two hundred and fifty 



CHARLES BALL. 409 

black people on board. I watched ber as she sailed away 
from us, until the darkness of the night shut her out from 
my sight. In the morning she was not to be seen. ^ hat 
became of the miserable mass of black fugitives; that this 
vessel took to sea, I never learned. 

My mission was now at an end, and I spoke this day to 
the young gentleman, under whose care I was, to endeavor 
to procure some means of conveying both him and me 
back again to Calvert. My protector seemed no less em- 
barrassed than I was, and informed me, that the officers 
of the ship said they would not land us on the Western 
Shore, within less than two weeks. I was obliged to con- 
tent myself in the best way I could, in my confinement on 
ship-board 3 and I amused myself by talking to the sail- 
ors, and giving them an account of the way in which I 
had passed my life on the tobacco and cotton plantations; 
in return for which, the seamen gave many long stories of 
their adventures at sea, and of the battles they had been 
en2;aged in. 

I lived well, whilst on board this ship, as they allowed 
me to share in a mess. In compensation for their civility, 
I gave them many useful instructions in the art of taking 
fish in the Bay. This great ship lay at anchor like a vast 
castle, moored by the cable; but there were many small 
vessels, used as tenders to the fleet, that were contmually 
sailing up and down the Bay, by night, as well as by day, 
in pursuit of anything that they might fall in with, that 
they could take from the Americans. Whilst I was on 
board, I saw more than thirty vessels, chiefly Bay craft, 
brought to our anchorage, and' there burned, after being 
stripped of everything valuable that could be taken from 

* '^e people who manned and navigated these vessels, 



410 THE ADVENTURES OF 

were made prisoners, and dispersed amongst the several 
ships of the fleet, until they could be removed to Halifax, 
or the West Indies. One day a small schooner was seen 
standing out of the mouth of Nanticoke river, and beating 
up the Ba,'. Chase was immediately given by several of 
the light vessels belonging to the fleet, and continued until 
nightfall, when I could no longer see the s-'ils; but the 
next day, the British vessels returned, bringing in their 
company, the little schooner, which was manned by her 
owner, who acted as captain, and two boj^s. On board the 
schooner, besides her crew, were several passengers, seven 
in number, I believe. The people were taken out of this 
vessel, which was laden with Indian corn, and after her 
cargo had been removed, she was burned in view of her 
owner, who seemed much affected at the sight, and said 
that it was all the property he owned in the world, and 
that his wife and children were now beggars. ^J he pas- 
sengers and crew of this little vessel, were all reta ned as 
prisoners of war, on board the 74, in which I was ; and 
were shut up every night in a room on the lower gun-deck. 
In this room there were several port-holes, which were 
suffered to remain open for the benefit of the air. 

After these people had b:en on board three or four 
days, a boat's crew, that had been out somewhere in the 
evening, when they returned to the ship, tied the boat 
with a long rope to one of the halyards of the ship, and 
left the boat floating near the ship's bows. Some time 
after night, the tide turned, moved the boat along the side 
of the ship, and floated it directly under the port-holes of 
the prisoner's room. The night was dark and warm, and 
I had taken a station on the upper deck, and was leaning 
over the bulwarks, when my attention was drawn towards 
the water, by hearing something drop into the boat that 



CHARLES BALL. 411 

lay along side. Dark as it was, I could see the forms of 
men passing out of the port-holes into the boat. In less 
than two minutes, nine persons had entered the boat; and 
I then heard a low whisper, which I could not understand, 
but immediately afterwards, saw the boat drifting with 
the tide; which convinced me that she was loose, and that 
the prisoners were in her. I said nothing, and in a short 
time the boat was out of sight. She had, however, not 
betn long gone, when the watch on deck passed near me, 
and looking over the side of the ship, called to the oflScer 
on deck, that the yawl was gone. The officer on deck in- 
stantly called to some one below to examine the room of 
the prisoners ; and received for answer, that the prisoners 
had fled. A gun was immediately fired under me, on one 
of the lower decks; the ship's bells were tolled; numer- 
ous blue lights were made ready, and cast high into the 
air, which, performing a curve in the atmosphere, illumi- 
nated the face of the water all the way from the ship to 
the place where they fell. The other ships in the fleet all 
answered, by firing guns, casting out lights, and ringing 
their large bells. Three boats put ofi" from our ship, in 
search of the fugitives, with as little delay as possible; 
and, after being absent more than an hour, returned with- 
out finding those who had escaped. 

This affair presented one of the finest night scenes that 
can well be imagined. The deep thunder of the heavy 
artillery, as it broke upon the stillness of the night, and 
re-echoed from the distant shores; the solemn and mourn- 
ful tones of the numerous bells, as they answered each 
other from ship to ship, as the sounds rose in the air, and 
died away in the distance, on the wide expanse of waters; 
with the shouts of the seamen, and the pale and ghastly 
appearance of the blue lights, as they rose into the atmos- 



412 THE ADVEVTURES OF 

phcre, and then descended and died away in the water- 
all combined together, to affect both the eye and the ear, 
in a manner the most impressive. 

One of the prisoners remained in the ship ; not having 
courage to undertake, with his companions, the daring and 
dangeious exploit of escaping from the ship in her own 
boat. When the morning came, this man explained to 
the officers of t'le ship, the whole plan that had been de- 
vised, and pursued by his companions. When they found 
that the boat had floated under the port -holes of their 
room, some one of the number proposed to the rest, to 
attempt to escape, as the oars of the boat had been left in 
her; but a difficulty suggested itself, at the outset, which 
was this; the oars could not be worked on the boat with- 
out making a great noise, sufficient to alarm the watch on 
deck. To avoid this, one of the prisoners said he would 
undertake to pull off his coat, and muffle one of the oars 
with it, and scull the boat until they should be clear of 
the fleet ; when they could lay both oars on the boat, and 
row to shore. We lay much nearer to the Western Shore, 
than we were to the Eastern, but this man said, the design 
of the prisoners was to pull to the Eastern Shore. All 
the boats that went from our ship pulled for the Western 
Shore, and by this means the prisoners escaped, without 
being seen. 

The captain of the ship was much enraged at the es- 
cape of these prisoners, and swore he would be avenged of 
the Yankees in a short time. In this, he was as good as 
his word ; for the very next day, he fitted out an expedi- 
tion, consisting of eleven long boats, and more than two 
hundred men, who landed on the Western Shore, and 
burned three houses, with all their furniture, and killed 
a great number of cattle. 



CHARLES BALL. 418 

The officer who headed this expedition, brought back 
with him a large silk handkerchief full of silver spoons, 
and other articles of silver plate. I saw him exhibit these 
trophies of his valor amongst his brother officers, on the 
deck of the ship. After I had been on board nearly a 
week, a furious north-east storm came on and blew for 
three days, accompanied with frequent gusts of rain. In 
the evening of the second day, we saw two schooners 
standing down the Bay, and sailing close on the wind, so 
as to pass between the fleet and the Eastern Shore. As it 
was dangerous for large ships to approach much nearer the 
Eastern Shore than where we lay, several of the tenders 
of the fleet, amounting in all to more than a dozen, were 
ordered, by signal, to intercept the strange sails, and 
bring them to the fleet. 

The tender got under weigh and stood before the wind, 
for the purpose of encountering the schooners, as they 
came down the Bay. These schooners proved to be two 
heavy armed American privateers, and when the tenders 
approached them a furious battle commenced, with canon, 
which lasted more than an hour, and until the privateers 
had passed quite below the anchorage, of the fleet. 

Several of the tenders were much damaged in their 
hulls and rigging ; and it was said that they lost more 
than twenty men. I could not perceive that the priva- 
teers sustained the least injury, as they never shortened 
sail, nor altered their course, until they had passed to the 
windward of all the ships of the fleet, when they changed 
their bearing, and stood for the Capes of Virginia. There 
were nearly forty vessels in the fleet, great and small; and 
yet these two privateers braved the whole of them in open 
day-light, and went to sea in spite of them. 

On the ninth day after we came on board, the fleet 



^l** . THE ADVENTURES OF 

again morod up the bay, and when we were off the mouth 
of the Potomac the captain sent the young gentleman, in 
whose service I was, together with myself, on shore in his 
own gig. 

Tlie lieutenant who had command of the gig, after he 
set us on shore, went up to the house of a farmer, whose 
estate lay open to the bay, and after pilfering the prem- 
ises of every thing that he could carry away, set L to 
the house, and returned to his boat. In the course of 
the summer and fall of the year 1813, I witnessed many 
other atrocities, of equal enormity. ' " 

I continued with the army after the sack of Washing, 
ton and assisted in the defence of Baltimore; but in the fall 
ot 1814, I procured my discharge from the army, and 
went to work in Baltimore, as a free black man. Vm 
his time until the year 1820, I worked in various pices 
m Maryland, as a free man; sometimes in Baltimore 
mT^^:VI''T°'''' '"'' ''"'"^""y - Washington! 
not often m Calvert county. I was fortunate in the en- 
joyment of good health; and by constant ' economy, 1 

dred and fifty dollars m money, the proceeds of my labor 

r.u;cr''rT'V'' *' °«'S'>''»l»«»d of Baltimore, and 
purchased a lot of twelve acres of ground, upon wb ch I 
erected a small house, and became a farm^ on my own 
a count, and upon my own property. I purchased a yoke 

the Baltimore market, where I sold the products of my 
own farm and dairy. In the course of two or three years 
I had brought my little farm into very good culture and 
had increased my stock ot cattle to fo'i'cows and .1 ral 
younger animals. I now lived very happily, and had al 



CHARLES BALL. 415 

abandance of all the necessaries of life around me. I had 
married a second wife, who bore me four children, and I 
now looked forward to an old age of comfort^ if not of 
ease; but I was soon to be awakened from this dream. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

In the month of June, 1830, as I was plowing in my 
lot, three gentlemen rode up to my fence, and alighting 
from their horses, all came over the fence, and approached 
me, when one of them told me he was the sheriff, and had 
a writ in his pocket, which commanded him to take me 
to Baltimore. I was not conscious of having done any 
thing injurious to any one; but felt a distrust of these 
men, who were all strangers to me. I told them I would 
go with them, if they would permit me to turn my oxen 
loose from the plough ; but it was my intention to seek 
an opportunity of escaping to the house of a gentleman, 
who lived about a mile from me-. This purpose I was not 
able to effect, for whilst 1 was taking the yoke from the 
oxen, one of the gentlemen came behind me, and knocked 
me down, with a heavy wliip; that he carried in his hand. 

When I recovered from the stunning effects of this 
blow, I found myself bound with my hands behind me, 
and strong cords closely wrapped about my arms. In this 
condition I was forced to set out immediately for Baltimore, 
without speaking to my wife, or even entering my door. 
i expected that on arriving at Baltimore, I should be ta- 



416 TUfi ADVENTURES OF 

ken before a judge, for the purpose of being tried, but in this 
I was deceived. They led me to the city jail, and there 
shut me up, with several other black people, both men 
and women, who told me they had lately been purchased 
by a trader from Georgia. 

I now saw the extent of my misfortune, but could not 
learn who the persons were, who had seized me. In the 
evening, however, one of the gentlemen, who had brought 
me from home, came into the jail with the jailor, and 
asked me if I knew him. On being answered in the neg- 
ative, he told me that he knew me very well; and asked 
me if 1 did not recollect the time that he and his brother 
had whipped me before my master's door, in Georgia. 

I now recognised the features of the younger of the two 
brothers of my mistress; but this man was so changed in 
his appearance, from the time when I had last seen him, 
that if he had not declared himself, I should never have 
known him. When I left Georgia, he was not more than 
twenty-one or two years of age, and had black bushy hair. 
His hair was now thin and grey, and all his features were 
changed. 

After lying in jail a little more than two weeks, strongly 
ironed, my fellow prisoners and I were one day chained 
together, hand-cuffed in pairs, and in this way driven 
about ten miles out of Baltimore, where we remained all 
night. 

On the evening of the second day, we halted, at Bla- 
densburg, and were shut up in a small house, within full 
view of the very ground, where sixteen years before 1 had 
fought in the ranks of the army of the United States, in 
defence of the liberty and independence of that which I 
then regarded as my country. It seemed as if it had been 
but yesterday that I had seen the British columns, advan- 



CHARLES BALL. 417 

cing across the bridge now before me, directing their fir€ 
against me, and my companions in arms. 

The thought now struck me, that if I had deserted that 
day, and gone over to the enemies of the United States, 
how different would my situation, at this moment have 
been. And this, thought I, is the reward of the part I 
bore in the dangers and fatigues of that disastrous battle. 

On the next morning we marched through Washing- 
ton, and as we passed in front of the President's house, 
I saw an old gentleman walking in the grounds, near the 
gait. This man I was told was the President of the 
United States. Within four weeks after we left Wash- 
ington, I was in Milledgeville, in Georgia, near which 
the man who had kidnapped me resided. He took me 
home with him, and set me to work on his plantation; but 
I had now enjoyed liberty too long to submit quietly to 
the endurance of slavery. I had no sooner come here, 
than I began to devise ways of escaping again from the 
hands of my tyrants, and of making my way to the 
northern States. 

The month of August was now approaching, which ig a 
favorable season of the year to travel, on account of the 
abundance of food tliat is to be found in the com fielde 
and orchards; but I remembered the dreadful sufferings 
that I had endured in my former journey from the South, 
and determined, if possible, to devise some scheme of get- 
ting away, that would not subject me to such hardships. 

After several weeks of consideration, I resolved to rnn 
away, go to some of the seaports, and endeavor to get a 
passage on board a vessel, bound to a northern city. 
With this view, I assumed the appearance of resignation 
and composure, under the new aspect of my fortune; and 
even went so far as to tell my new master that I lived 
Jl 



418 THE ADVENTTTRES OF 

more comfortably with him, in his cotton field )=<, than I 
had formerly done, on my own small farm in Maryland ; 
though I believe my master did me the justice to give no 
credit to my assertions, on this subject. 

From the moment I discovered in Maryland, that I had 
fallen into the hands of the brother of my former mistress, 
I gave up all hope of contesting his right to arrest me, 
with success at law, as I supposed he had come with au- 
thority to reclaim me as the property of his sister ; but 
after I had returned to Georgia, and had been at work 
some weeks on the plantation of my new master, I learned 
that he now claimed me as his own slave, and that he had 
reported that he had purchased mo in Baltimore, It was 
now clear to me^ that this man, having by some means 
learned the place of my residence, in Maryland, had kid- 
napped and now held me as his slave, without the color of 
legal right; but complaint on my part was useless, and 
resistance vain. 

I was again reduced to the condition of a common field 
slave, on a cotton plantation in Georgia, and compelled to 
subsist on the very scanty and coarse food, allowed to 
southern slaves. I had been absent from Georgia, almost 
twenty years^ and in that period, great changes had doubt- 
lessly taken place in the face of the country, as well as in 
the condition of human society. 

I had never been in Milledgeville, until I was brought 
there, by the man who had kidnppped me in Maryland } 
and I was now a slave amongst entire strangers, and had 
no friend to give me the consolation of kind words, such 
as I had formerly received from my master in Morgan 
county. The plantation on which I was now a slave, had 
formerly belonged to the father of my mistress ; and some 
of my fellow-slaves bad been well acquainted with her, in 



CHARLES BALL. 419 

her youth. From these people, I learned, that after the 
death of my master, and my flight from Georgia, my mis- 
tress had become the wife of a second husband, who had 
removed with her to the State of Louisiana, more than 
fifteen years ago. 

After ascertaining these facts, which proved beyond all 
doubt, that my present master had no right, whatsoever, 
to me, in either law, or justice, I determined, that before 
encountering the dangers and suflferings, that must neces- 
sarily attend my second flight from Georgia, I would at- 
tempt to claim the protection of the laws of the country, 
and try to get myself discharged from the unjust slavery 
in which I was now held. Tor this purpose, I went to 
Milledgeville, one Sunday, and enquired for a lawyer, of 
a black man whom I met in the street. This person told 
me that his master was a lawyer, and went with me to his 
house. 

The lawyer, after talking to me some time, told me that 
my master was his client, and that he, therefore, could 
not undertake my cause; but referred me to a young gen- 
tleman, who he said would do my business for me. Ac- 
cordingly, to this young man I weut, and after relating 
_my whole story to him, he told me that he believed he 
could not do anything for me, as I had no witnesses to 
prove my freedom. 

I rejoined, that it seemed hard that I must be compel- 
led to prove myself a free man ; and that it would appear 
more consonant to reason, that my master should prove 
me to be a slave. He, however, assured me, that this was 
not the law of Georgia, where every man of color was pre- 
sumed to be a slave, until he proved that he was free. 
He then told me, that if I expected him to talk to me, I 
must give him a fee; whereupon, I gave-him all the money 



420 THE ADVENTURES OP 

1 had been able to procure, since my arrival in the coun- 
ti-y, which was two dollars and seventy-five cents. 

When 1 offered him this money, the lawyer tossed his 
head, and said such a trifle was not worth accepting ; but, 
nevertheless, he took it, and then asked me if I could get 
some more money before the next Sunday. That if I 
could get another dollar, he would issue a writ and have 
me brought before the court ; but if he succeeded in get- 
ting me set free, I must engage to serve him a year. To 
these conditions I agreed, and signed a paper which the 
lawyer wrote, and which was signed by two persons a» 
witnesses. 

The brother of my pretended master, was yet living in 
this noigliborhood, and the lawyer advised me to have him 
brought forward, as a witness, to prove that I was not a 
slave of my present pretended owner. On the "Wednes- 
day following my visit to Milledgeville, the sheriff came 
to my master's plantation, and took me from the field to 
the house, telling me as I walked beside him, that be had 
ft writ which commanded him to take me to Milledgeville. 
Instead, however, of obeying the command of his writ, 
when we arrived at the house, he took a bond of my mas- 
ter that he would produce me at the court house on the 
next Friday, and then rode away, leaving me at the mercy 
of my kidnapper. 

Since I had been on this plantation, I had never been 
whipped, although all the other slaves, of whom there 
were more than fifty, were frequently flogged without any 
apparent cause. I had, all along, attributed my exemp- 
tion from the lash, to the fears of my master. He knew 
I had formerly run away from his sister, on account of 
her cruelty, and his own savage conduct to me ; and I be- 
lieved that he waa still apprehensive, that a repetition of 



CHARLES BALL. 421 

his former barbarity might produce the same effect that it 
had done twenty years before. 

His evil passions were like fire covered with ashes — 
concealed, not extinguished. He now found that I was 
determined to try to regain my liberty at all events, and 
the sheriff was no sooner gone, than the overseer was sent 
for, to come from the field, and I was tied up and whip- 
ped, with the long lashed negro whip, until I fainted, and 
was carried in a state of insensibility, to my lodgings in 
the quarter. It was night when I recovered my under- 
standing, sufficiently to be aware of my true situation. I 
now found that my wounds had been oiled, and that I was 
wrapped in a piece of clean linen cloth ; but for several 
days I was unable to leave my bed. When Friday came, 
I was not taken to Milledgeville, and afterwards learned, 
that my master reported to the court, that I had been 
taken ill, and was not able to leave the house, The judge 
asked no questions as to the cause of my illness. 

At the end of two weeks, I was taken to Milledgeville, 
and carried before a judge, who first asked a few ques- 
tions of my master, as to the length of time that he had 
owned me, and the place where he had purchased me. He 
stated in my presence, that he had purchased me, with 
several others, at public auction, in the city of Baltimore, 
and had paid five hundred and ten dollars for me 1 was 
not permitted to speak to the court, much less to contra- 
dict this falsehood, in the manner it deserved. 

The brother of my master was then called as a witness, 
by my lawyer ; but the witness refused to be sworn or ex- 
amined, on account of his interest in mo, as his slave. In 
support of his refusal, he produced a bill .of sale from my 
master to himself, for an equal, undivided, half part of 
th« f^lave Charles. This bill of sale, wa^ dated several 
Jl* 



422 THE ADVENTURES OF 

weeks previous to the time of trial, and gave rise to an 
argument between the opposing lawyers, that continued 
until the court adjourned in the evening. 

On the next morning, I was again brought into court, 
and the judge now delivered his opinion, which was, that 
the witness could not be compelled to give evidence in a 
cause to which he was really, though not nominally, a 
party. The court then proceeded to give judgment in 
the cause before it, and declared that the law was well 
settled in Georgia, that every negro was presumed to be a 
slave, until he proved his freedom by the clearest evidence. 
Tliat where a negro was found in the custody or keeping 
of a white man, the law declared the white man to be his 
master, without any evidence on the subject. But the 
rase before the court, was exceedingly plain, and free from 
ail doubt or difficulty. Hei'e the master has brought this 
slave into the State of Georgia, as his property ; has held 
him as a slave ever since, and still holds him as a slave. 
The title of the master in this case, is the best title that a 
man can have to any property, and the order of the court 
is, that the slave Charles be returned to the custody of 
hia master. 

I was immediately ordered to return home, and from 
this time until I left the plantation, my life was a con- 
tinual torment to me. The overseer often came up to me 
in the field, and gave me several lashes with his long whip, 
over my naked back, through mere wantonness; and I 
was often compelled, after I had done my day's work in 
the field, to cut wood, or perform some other labor at tha 
house, until long after dark. My sufferings were too 
great to be borne long by any human creature ; and to a 
man who had once tasted the sweets of liberty, they were 
doiibiy tormenting, 



CHARLES BALL. 423 

There wag nothing in the form of danger that could 
intimidate me, if the road on which I had to encounter it, 
led me to freedom. That season of the year, most favor- 
able to my escape from bondage, had at length arrived. 
The corn in the fields was so far grown, as to be fit for 
roasting; the peaches were beginning to ripen, and the 
sweet potatos were large enough to be eaten; but, not- 
withstanding all this, the difl&culties that surrounded, me, 
were greater than can easily be imagined by any one who 
has never been a slave in the lower country of G-eorgia. 

In the first place, I was almost naked, having no other 
clothes than a ragged shirt of tow cloth, and a pair of old 
trousers of the same material, with an old woollen jacket 
that I had brought with me from home. In addition to 
this, I was closely watched every evening, until I had 
finished the labor assigned me, and then I was locked up 
in a small cabin by myself, for the night. 

This cabin was really a prison, and had been built for 
the purpose of confining such of the slaves of this estate, 
as were tried in the evening, and sentenced to be whipped 
in the morning. It was built of strong oak logs, hewn 
square, and dovetailed together at the corners. It had no 
window in it; but as the logs did not fit very close 
together, there way never any want of air in this jail, in 
which I had been locked up every night since my trial 
before the court. 

On Sundays I was permitted to go to work in the fields, 
with the other people who worked on that day, if I chose 
so to do; but at this time I was put under the charge of 
an old African negro, who was instructed to give imme- 
diate information if I attempted to leave the field. To 
escape on Sunday was impossible, and there seemed to be 
no hope of getting out of my sleeping room, the floor of 
which was made of strong pine plank. 



424 THE ADVENTURES OP 

Fortune at length did for me that which I had not 
been able to accomplish, by the greatest efforts, for myself. 
The lock that was on the door of my nightly prison was a 
large stock lock, and had been clumsily fitted on the door, 
BO that the end of the lock pressed against the door-case, 
and made it difficult to shut the door even in dry weather. 
When the weather was damp, and the wood was swollen 
with moisture, it was not easy to close the door, at all. 

Late in the month of September, the weather became 
cloudy, and much rain fell. The clouds continued to 
obscure the heavens for four or five days. One evening 
when I was ordered to my house, as it was called, the 
overseer followed me without a light, although it was 
very dark. When I was in the house, he pushed the 
door after me with all his strength. The violence of the 
effort caused the door to pass within the case at the top, 
for one or two feet, and this held it so fast that he could 
not again pull it open. 

Supposing in the extreme darkness, that the door was 
shut, he turned the key, and the bolt of the lock passing 
on the outside of the staple intended to receive it, com- 
pletely deceived him. He then withdrew the key and 
went away. Soon after he was was gone, I went to the 
door, and feeling with my hands, ascertained that it was 
not shut. An opportunity now presented itself for me to 
escape from my prison-house, with a prospect of being able 
to be so far from my master's residence before morning, 
that none could soon overtake me, even should the course 
of my flight be ascertained. Waiting quietly, until every 
one about the quarter had ceased to be heard, I applied 
one of my feet to the door, and giving it a strong push, 
forced it open. 
Th« world was now all before me, but the darkness was 



CHARLES BALL. 425' 

SO profound, as to obscure from my vision the largest 
objects, even a house, at the distance of a few yards. 
But dark as it was, necessity compelled me to leave the 
plantation without delay, and knowing only the great 
roa(f that led to Milledgeville, amongst the various roadg 
of this country, I set off at a brisk walk on this public 
highway, assured that no one could apprehend me in so 
dark a night. 

It was only about seven miles to Milledgeville, and 
when I reached that town, several lights were burning in 
the windows of the houses; but keeping on directly 
through the village, I neither saw nor heard any person 
in it, and after gaining the open country, my first caro 
was to find some secure place where shelter could be found 
for the next day; but no appearance of thick woods waa 
to be seen for several miles, and two or three hours must 
have elapsed, before a forest of sufficient magnitude was 
found to answer my purposes. 

It was perhaps three o'clock in the morning when I 
took refuge in a thick and dismal swamp that lay on the 
right hand of the road, intending to remain here until 
daylight, and then look out for a secret place to conceal 
myself in during the day. Hitherto, although the night 
was so extremely dark, it had not rained any, but soon 
after my halt in the swamp, the rain began to fall in floods 
rather than in showers, which made me as wet as if I had 
Bwum a river. 

Daylight at length appeared, but brought with it but 
very little mitigation of my sufferings; for the swamp 
in which my hiding-place was, lay in the midst of a 
well peopled country, and was surrounded on all sides by 
cotton and corn fields, so close to me, that the open 
spaces of the cleared land could be seen from my position. 



426 THE ADVENTUKES OF 

It was dangerous to move, lest some one should see me; 
and painful to remain without food, when hunger was 
cCBisuming me. 

My resting place in the swamp was within view of the 
road j and soon after sunrise, although it continued to rain 
fast, numerous horsemen were seen passing along the road 
by the way that led me to the swamp. There was little 
doubt on my mind, that these people were in search of me, 
and the sequel proved that my surmises were well found- 
ed. It rained throughout this day, and the fear of being 
apprehended by those who came in pursuit of me, confined 
me to the swamp, until after dark the following evening, 
when I ventured to leave the thicket and return to the 
high-road, the bearing of which it was impossible for me 
to ascertain, on account of the dense clouds that obscured 
the heavens. All that could be done in my situation, was 
to take care not to follow that end of the road which had 
led me to the swamp. 

Turnmg my back once more upon Milledgeville, and 
walking at a quick pace, every eflbrt was made to remove 
myself as far as possible this night from the scene of suf- 
fering, for which that swamp will ever be memorable in 
my mind. The rain had ceased to fall at the going down 
of the sun, and the darkness of this second night was not 
so great as that of the first had been. This circumstance 
was regarded by me as a happy presage of the final suc- 
cess that awaited my undertaking. Events proved that I 
was no prophet; for the dim light of the night was the 
cause of the dreadful misfortune that awaited me. 

In a former part of this volume, the reader is made 
acquainted with the deep interest that is taken by all the 
planters, far and wide, around the plantation from which 
a slave has escaped, by running away. Twenty years had 



CHARLES HAUu 427 

wrought no change in favor of the fugitive ; nor had the 
feuds and dissensions, that agitate and distract the com- 
munities of white men, produced any relaxation in the 
friendship that they profess to feel, and really do feel for 
each other, on a question of so much importance to them 
alL 

More than twenty miles of road had been left behind 
me this night, and it must have been two or three o'clock 
in the morning, when, as I was passing a part of the road 
that led through a dense pine grove, where trees on either 
side grew close to the wheel tracks, five or six men sud- 
denly rushed upon me from both sides of the road, and 
with loud cries of ^^ Kill him! kill him!^' accompanied 
with oaths and opprobrious language, seized me, dragged 
me to the ground, and bound me fast with a long cord, 
which was wrapped around my arms and body so as to 
confine my hands below my hips. 

In this condition, I was driven, or rather dragged, about 
two miles, to a kind of tavern or public house that stood 
by the side of the road, where my captors were joined, 
soon after daylight, by at least twenty of their compan- 
ions, who had been out all night waiting and watching for 
me on the other roads of this part of the country. Those 
who had taken me were loudly applauded by their fellows; 
and the whole party passed the morning in drinking, sing- 
ing songs, and playing cards, at this house. At breakfiist 
time they gave me a large cake of corn bread and some 
sour milk for breakfast. 

About ten o'clock in the morning, my master arrived at 
the the tavern, in company with two or three other gen- 
tlemen, all strangers to me. My master, when he came 
into my presence, looked at me and said, " Well, Charles, 
you had bad luck in running away this time;" and imine- 



/ 



428 THE ADVENTURES OF 

diately asked aloud, wliat any person would give for mc. 
One man who was slightly intoxicated, said he would giv« 
four hundred dollars for me. Other bids 'followed, until 
my price was soon up to five hundred and eighty dollars, 
for which I was stricken off by my master himself, to a 
gentleman, who immediately gave his note for me, and 
took charge of me as his property. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The name of my new master was Jones, a planter, who . 
was only a visiter in this part of the country, his residence 
being about fifty miles down the country. The next day 
my new master set off with me to the place of his residence, 
permitting me to walk behind him, as he rode on horse- 
back, and leaving me entirely unshackled. I was resolved, 
that as my owner treated me with so much liberality, the 
trust he reposed in me should not be broken until after 
we had reached his home ; though the determination of 
again running away, and attempting to escape from Geor- 
gia, never abandoned me for a moment. 

The country through which we passed, on our journey, 
was not rich. The soil was sandy, light, and in many 
places much exhausted by excessive tillage. The timber, 
in the woods where the ground was high, was almost ex- 
clusively pine; but many swamps and extensive tracts of 
low ground intervened, in which maple, gum, and all the 
other trees common to such land in the south, abounded. 

No improvement in the condition of the slaves on th« 



CHARLES BALL. 429 

plantations was here perceptible j but it appeared to me, 
that there was now even a greater want of good clothes 
amongst the slaves on the various plantations that wo 
passed, than had existed twenty years before. Every- 
where the overseers still kept up the same custom of 
walking in the fields, with a long whip, that has been 
elsewhere described; and everywhere the slaves proved, 
by the husky appearance of their skins, and the dry, 
sunburnt aspect of their hair, that they were strangers 
to animal food. 

On the second day of our journey, in the evening, we 
arrived at the residence of my master, about eighty miles 
from Savannah. The plantation, which had now become 
the place of my residence, was not large, containing only 
about three hundred acres of cleared land, and having on 
it about thirty working slaves of all classes. 

It was now the very midst of the season of picking 
cotton, and, at the end of twenty years from the time of 
my first flight, I again had a daily task assigned me, with 
the promise of half a cent a pound, for all the cotton I 
should pick beyond my day's work. Picking cotton, like 
every other occupation requirng active manipulation, de- 
pends more upon sleight than strength; and I was not 
now able to pick so much in a day, as I once was able to 
do. 

My master seemed to be a man ardently bent on the 
acquisition of wealth, and came into the field, where we 
were at work, almost every day ; frequently remonstrating 
in strong language, with the overseer, because he did not 
get more work done. 

Our rations on thi.s place, were a half peck of corn per 
week; in addition to which, we had rather more than a 
«ck of sweet potatos allowed to each person. Our pro- 
Kl 



4S0' THB ADVEKTURES Of 

visions were distributed to us on every Sunday morning 
by the overseer; but my master was generally present, 
either to see that justice was done to us, or that injustice 
was not done to himself. 

When I had been here about a week,- my master catoe 
into the field one day, and, in passing near me, stopped 
and told me that I had now fallen into good hands^ as it 
was his practice not to whip his people much. That he, 
in truth, never whipped them, nor suffered his overseer 
to whip them, escept in flagrant cases. That he had dis* 
covered a mode of punishment much more mild, and at 
the same time, much more effectual than flogging; and 
that he governed his negros exclusively under this mode 
of discipline- He then told me that when I came home 
in the evening, I must come to the house, and that he 
would then make me acquainted with the principles upon 
which he chastised his slaves. 

Going to the house in the evening, according to orders, 
my master showed me a pump, set in a well, in which the 
water rose within ten feet of the surface of the ground. 
The spout of this pump was elevated at least thirteen feet 
above the earth, and when the water was to be drawn from 
it, the person who worked the handle ascended by a lad- 
der to the proper station. The^guter in this well, altho' 
so near the surface, was very cold; and the ["pump dis* 
charged it in a large stream. '*• 

One of the women employed in the house had commit- 
ted some offence, for which she was to be punished, and 
the opportunity was embraced of exhibiting to me the 
effect of this novel mode of torture upon the human frame. 
The woman was stripped quite naked, and tied to a post 
that stood just under the stream of water, as it fell from 
the spout of the pump. A lad was then ordered to as- 



CHARLES BALL. 43X 

ocnd the ladder, and pump water upon the head and shoul- 
ders of the victim, who had not been under the watar-fall 
more than a minute, before she began to cry and scream 
m a most lamentable manner. In a short time she exerted 
her strength m the most convulsive throes, in trying to 
escape from the post; but as the cords were strong, this 
was impossible. After another minute or a little more, 
her cries became weaker, and soon afterwards her head 
fell forward on her breast; and then the boy was ordered 
to cease pumping the water. The woman was removed in 
a st^ate of insensiblity, but recovered her faculties in about 
an hour. The next morning he complained of lightness 
of the head, but was able to gi} to work. 

This punishment of the pump, as it was called, was 
never inflicted on me; and T am only able to describe it 
as It has been described to me, by those who have endured 
It- When the water first strikes the head and the arms, 
It 13 not at all painful; but in a short time it produces the 
sensation that is felt wlien heavy blows are inflicted with 
large rods, of the size of a man's finger. This perception 
becomes more and more painful, until the skull bone and 
shoulder blades appear to be broken in pieces. Finally, 
all the faculties become oppressed; breathing becomes 
more and more difficult; jintil the eye-sight becomes dim, 
and animation ceases. 

Thig punishment is, in fact, a temporary murder; as 
all the pains are endured, that can be felt by a person 
who is deprived of life by being beaten with bludgeons— 
but after the punishment of the pump, the sufferer is re- 
stored to existence, by being laid in a bed, and covered 
with warm clothes. A giddiness of the head, and oppres- 
sion of the breast, follows this operation, for a day or two, 
and sometimes longer. The object of calling me to be a 



432 THE ADVENTURES OF 

witness of this new mode of torture, doubtlessly^ was to 
intimidcate me from running away; but, like medicines 
administered by empirics, the spectacle had precisely the 
opposite effect, from that which it was expected to produce. 

After my arrival on this estate, my intention, had been 
to defer my elopement until the next year, before I had 
seen the torture inflicted on this unfortunate woman • but 
from that moment my resolution was unalterably fixed, to 
escape as quickly as possible. Such was my desperation 
of feeling, at this time, that 1 deliberated seriously upon 
the i^rojcct of endeavoring to make my way southward, 
for the purpose of joining the Indians in Florida. For- 
tune reserved a more agreeable fate for me. 

On the Saturday night after the woman was punished 
at the pump, I stole a yard of cotton bagging from the 
cotton gin house, and converted it into a bag, by means of 
a coarse needle and thread that I borrowed of one of the 
black women. On the next morning, when our weekly- 
rations were distributed to us, my portion was .carefully 
placed in my bag, under pretence of fears that it would 
be stolen from me, if it was left open in the loft of the 
kitchen that I lodged in. 

This day being Sunday, I did not go to the field to 
work as usual, on that day, but under pretence of being 
uuwel], remained in the kitchen all day, to be the bettor 
prepared for the toils of the following night. After day- 
light had totally disappeared, taking my bag under my 
arm, under pretence of going to the mill to grind my 
corn, I stole softly across the cotton fields to the nearest 
woods, and taking an observation of the stars, directed 
my course to the eastward, resolved, that in no event 
should anything induce me to travel a single yard, on the 
high road, until at least one hur^'lred miles from this plan- 
tation. 



CHARLES BALL. 433 

Keeping on steadily through the whole of this night, 
and meeting with no swamps, or briery thickets in my 
way, I have no doubt, that before daylight, the plantation 
was more than thirty miles behind me. Twenty years 
before this, I had been in Savannah, and noted at that 
time, that great numbers of ships were in that port, 
taking in loading of cotton. My plan now, was to reach 
Savannah, in the best way 1 could, and by some means 
to be devised after my arrival in the city, to procure a 
passage to some of the northern cities. 

When day appeared before me, I was in a large cotton 
field, and before the woods could be reached, it was grey 
dawn; but the forest bordering on the field was large and 
afforded me good shelter through the day, under cover of 
a large thicket of swamp laurel, that lay at the distance 
of a quarter of a mile from the field. It now became ne- 
cessary to kindle a fire, for all my stock of provisions, 
consisting of corn and potatos, was raw and undrest. 
Less fortunate now than in my former flight, no fire appa- 
ratus was in my possession, and driven to the last extrem- 
ity, I determined to endeavor to produce fire by rubbing 
two sticks together, and spent at least two hours of inces- 
sant toil, in this vain operation, without the least prospect 
of success. Abandoning this project, at length, I turned 
my thoughts to searching for a stone of some kind, with 
which to endeavor to extract fire from an old jack knife, 
that had been my companion in Maryland for more than 
three years. My labors were fruitless. No stone could 
be found in this swamp ; and the day was passed in anxi- 
ety and hunger, a few raw potatos being my only food. 

Night at length came, and with it a renewal of my 
travelling labors. Avoiding with the utmost care, every 
appearance of a road, and pursuing my way until day- 



434 THE ABVEKTURES OF 

light, I must have travelled at least thirty miles this night. 
A while before day, in crossing a field, I fortunately came 
upon a bed of large pebbles, on the side of a hill. Sev- 
eral of these were deposited in my bag, which enabled me 
when day arrived, to procure f re, with which I parched 
corn and roasted potatos sufficient to subsist me for two 
or three days. On the fourth night of my journey, for- 
tune directed me to a broad, open highway, that appeared 
to be much travelled. Near the side of this road, I es- 
tablished my quarters for the day, in a thick pine wood, 
for the purpose of making observations upon the people 
who travelled it, and of judging thence of the part of the 
country to which it led. 

Soon after daylight, a wagon passed along, drawn by 
oxen, and loaded with bales of cotton ; then followed some 
white men on horseback, and soon after sunrise a whole 
train of wagons and carts, all loaded with bales of cotton, 
passed by, following the wagon first seen by me. In the 
course of the day, at least one hundred wagons and carts 
passed along this road, toward the south-east, all laden 
with cotton bales; and at least an equal number came 
towards the West, either laden with casks of various 
dimensions, or entirely empty. Numerous horsemen, 
many carriages, and great numbers of persons on foot, 
also passed to and fro on this road, in the course of the 
day. 

All these indications satisfied me, that I must be near 
some large town, the seat of an extensive cotton market. 
The next consideration with me was to know how far it 
wa.s to this town, for which purpose I determined to travel 
on the road, the succeeding night. Lying in the woods, 
until about eleven o'clock, I rose, came to the road, and 
travelled it until within an hour of daylight, at which 



CHARLES BALL. 435 

time, the country around me appeared almost wholly clear 
of timber ; and houses became much more numerous than 
they had been in the former parts of my journey. 

Things continued to wear this aspect until daylight, 
when I stopped, and sat down by the side of a high fenc« 
that stood beside the road. After remaining here a short 
time, a wagon laden with cotton, passed along, drawn by 
oxen, whose driver, a black man, asked me if I was going 
towards town. Being answered in the affirmative, he then 
asked me if I did not wish to ride in his wagon. I told 
him I had been out of town all night, and should be very 
thankful to him for a ride; at the same time ascending 
his wagon and placing myself in a secure and easy position 
on the bags of cotton. 

In this manner we travelled on for about two hours, 
when we entered the town of Savannah. In my situation, 
there was no danger of any one suspecting me to be a 
runaway slave; for no runaway had ever been known to 
fly from the country, and seek refuge in Savannah. The 
man who drove the wagon, passed through several of the 
principal streets of the city, and stopped his team before 
a large warehouse, standing on a wharf, looking into the 
river. Here I assisted my new friend to unload his cot- 
ton, and when we were done, he invited me to share his 
breakfast with him, consisting of corn bread, roast^'d 
potatos, and some cold boiled rice. 

" Whilst we were at our breakfast, a black man came 
along the street, and asked us if we knew where he could 
hire a hand, to help him to work a day or two. I at once 
replied, that my master had sent me to town, to hire my- 
self out for a few weeks, and that I was ready to go with 
him immediately. The joy I felt at finding employment, 
so overcame me, that all thought of my wages was forgot- 



436 THE ADVENTURES OP 

ten. Bidding farewell to the man who had given me my 
breakfast, and thanking him in my heart for his kindness, 
I followed my new employer, who informed me that be 
had engaged to remove a thousand bales of cotton from a 
large warehouse, to the end of a wharf at which a ship 
lay, that was taking in the cotton as a load. 

This man was a slave, but hired his time of his master 
at two hundred and fifty dollars a year, which he said he 
paid in monthly instalments. He did what he called job 
work, which consisted of undertaking jobs, and hiring 
men to work under him, if the job was too great to be 
performed by himself. In the present instance, he had 
seven or eight black men, beside me, all hired to help him 
remove the cotton in wheelbarrows, and lay it near the 
end of the wharf, when it was taken up by sailors and 
carried on board the ship, that was receiving it. 

We continued working hard all day; and amongst the 
o-ew of the ship was a black man, with whom I resolved 
to become acquainted by some means. Accordingly, at 
night, after we had quit our work, I went to the end of 
the wharf against which the ship lay moored, and stood 
there a long time, waiting for the black sailor to make his 
appearance on deck. At length, my desires were gratified. 
He came upon the deck, and sat down near the main-mast, 
with a pipe in his mouth, which he was smoking with 
great apparent pleasure. After a few minutes, I spoke t<y 
liim, for he had not yet seen me, as it appeared, and when 
he heard my voice, he rose up and came to the side of the 
ship near where I stood. We entered into conversation 
together, in the course of which he informed me that his 
home was in New York; that he had a wife and several 
children there, but that he followed the sea for a livelihood, 
and knew no otlier mode of life. He also asked me where 



CHARLES BALL. 437 

my master lived, aud if Georgia had always been the 
place of my residence. 

I deemed this a favorable opportunity of effecting the 
object I had in view, in seeking the acquaintance of this 
man, and told him at once, that by law and justice I waa 
a free man, but had been kidnapped near Baltimore, forci- 
bly brought to Georgia, and sold there as a slave. That 
I was now a fugitive from my master, and in search of 
some means of getting back to my wife and children. 

The man seemed moved by the account of my suffer- 
ings, and at the close of my narrative, told me he could 
not receive me on board the ship, as the captain had given 
positive orders to him, not to let any of the negroes of 
Savannah come on board, lest they should steal something 
belonging to the ship. He further told me, that he was 
on watch, and should continue on deck two hours. That 
he was forced to take a turn of watching the ship every 
night, for two hours; but tliat his turn would not come 
the next night until after midnight. 

I now begged him to enable me to secrete myself on 
board the ship, previous to the time of her sailing, so that 
I might be conveyed to Philadelphia, whither the ship 
was bound with her load of cotton. He at first received 
my application with great coldness, and said he would not 
do anything contrary to the orders of the captain; but 
before we parted, he said he should be glad to assist mo 
if he could, but that the execution of the plan proposed 
by me, would be attended with great danger, if not ruin. 

In my situation, there was nothing too hazardous for 
me to undertake, and I informed him that if he would let 
me hide myself in the hold of the ship, amongst the bags 
of cotton, no one should ever know that he had any 
knowledge of the fact; and that all the danger, and all 



438 THE ADVENTURES OP 

the disasters tLat might attend the affair, should fall ex- 
(rlusively on me. He finally told me to go away, and that 
he would think of the matter until the next day. 

It was obvious that his heart was softened in my favor ; 
that his feelings of compassion almost impelled him to do 
an act in my behalf that was forbidden by his judgment, 
and his sense of duty to his employers. As the houses of 
the city were now closed, and I was a stranger in the 
place, I went to a wagon that stood in front of the ware- 
house, and had been unladen of the cotton that had been 
brought in it, and creeping into it, made my bed with the 
driver, who permitted me to share his lodgings amongst 
some corn tops, that he had brought to feea his oxen. 

When the morning came, I went again to the ship, and 
when the people came on deck, asked them for the captain, 
whom I should not have known by his dress, which was 
very nearly similar to that of the sailors. On being 
asked if he did not ivi&h to hire a hand, to help to load 
his ship, he told me I might go to work amongst the men, 
if T chose, and he would pay me what I was worth. 

My object was to procure employment on board the 
ship, and not to get wages ; and in the course of this day 
I found means to enter the hold of the ship several times, 
and examine it minutely. The black sailor promised that 
he would not betray me, and that if I could find the means 
of escaping on board the ship he would not disclose it. 

At the end of three days, the ship had taken in her . 
loading, and the captain said in my presence, that he in- 
tended to sail the day after. No time was now to be lost, 
and asking the ciptain what he thought I had earned, he 
gave me three dollars, which was certainly very liberal 
pay, considering, that during the whole time that I had 
worked for him, my fare had been the same as that of the 



CHARLES BALL. 439 

sailors, who had as much as they could consume, of excel- 
lent food. 

The. sailors were now busy in trimming the ship, and 
making ready for sea, and observing, that this work requi- 
red them to spend much time in the hold of the ship I 
went to the captain and told him, that as he had paid me 
good wages, and treated me well, I would work with his 
people, the residue of this day, for my victuals and half a 
^llon of molasses : which he said he would give me. 
3Iy first object now, was to get into the hold of the ship 
with those who were adjusting the cargo. The first time 
the men below called for aid, I went to them, and being 
there, took care to remain with them. Being placed at 
one side of the hold, for the purpose of packing the bags 
close to the ship's timbers, I so managed, as "to leave a 
space between two of the bags, large enough for a man to 
creep in, and conceal himself This cavity was near the 
opening, in the centre of the hold, that was left to let 
men get down, to stow away the last of the bags that were 
put in. In this small hollow retreat, amongst the bags of 
cotton, I determined to take my passage to Philadelphia, 
if by any means I could succeed in stealing on board the 
ship at night. 

When the evening came, I went to a store near the 
wharf, and bought two jugs, one that held half a gallon, 
and the other a large stone jug, that held more than 
three gallons. When it was dark, I filled my large 
jug with water; purchased twenty pounds of pilot bread 
at a bakery, which I tied in a large handkerchief; and 
taking my jugs in my hand, went on board the ship to 
receive my molasses of the captain, for the labor of th 2 
day. The Qaptain was not on board, and the boy gave mc 
the molasses; but, under pretence of waiting to sec th« 



410 THE ADVEVTURES OF 

oaprain, I sat down between two rows of cotton bales, that 
were stowed on deck. The night was very dark, and, 
watching a favorable opportunity, when the man on deck 
had gone forward, I succeeded in placing both my jugs 
upon the bags of cotton that rose in the hold, almost to 
the deck. In another moment, I glided down amongst 
the cargo; and lost no time in placing my jugs in the 
place provided for them, amongst the bales of cotton, be- 
side the liar provided for myself. ^ 

Soon after I had taken my station for the voyage, the 
captain came on board, and th*e boy reported to him, that 
he had paid me off, and dismissed me. In a short time 
all was quiet on board the ship, except the occasional 
ti-ead of the man on watch. I slept none all this night j 
the anxiety that oppressed me, preventing me from taking 
any repose. 

Before day the captain was on deck, and gave orders 
to the seamen, to clear the ship for sailing, and to be 
ready to descend the river with the ebb-tide, which was 
ejxpccted to flow at sun-rise. I felt the motion of the 
ship when she got under weigh, and thought the time 
long before I heard the breakers of the ocean surging 
against her sides. 

In the place where I lay, when the hatches were closed, 
total darkness prevailed ; and I had no idea of the lapse 
of time, or of the progress we made, until, having at one 
period crept out in the open space, between the rows of 
ootton bags, which I have before described, 1 heard a man, 
who appeared from the sound of his voice to be standing 
on the hatch, call out and say, ^^that is Cape Hatteras." 
I had already came out of my covert, several times, into 
the open space ; but ,he hatches were closed sq tightly, as 
to exclude all light. It appeared to me that we had 



CflARLES UALL. 441 

already been at sea a lotig time; but as darkness Was un- 
broken with me, I could not make any computation of 
periods. 

Soon after this the hatch was opened, and the h'ght wag 
let into the hold. A man descended foi* the purpose of 
examining the state of the cargo, who returned in a shork 
time. The hatch was again closed; and nothing of mo- 
ment occurred from this time, until I had heard and [felt 
the ship strike against a solid body. In a short time I 
heard much noise, and a multitude of sounds of various 
kinds. All this satisfied me that the ship was in some 
port; for I no longer heard the sound of the waves, nor 
perceived the least motion in the ship. 

At length the hatch was again opened, and the light 
was let in upon me. My anxiety now was, to escape from 
the ship without being discovered by any one; to accom- 
plish which I determined to issue from the hold as soon 
as night came on, if possible. Waiting until sometime 
after daylight had disappeared, I ventured to creep to th« 
hatchway, and raise my head above the deck. Seeing no 
one on board, I crawled out of the hold and stepped on 
board a ship that lay alongside of that in which I had 
come a passenger. Here a man seized me, and called me 
a thief, saying I had come to I'ob his ship; and it was 
with much difficulty I prevailed upon him to let me go. 
He at length permitted me to go on'^the wharf; and I 
once more felt aiyself a freeman. 

I did not know what city I was in, but as the sailors 
had all told me at Savannah, that their ship was bound to 
Philadelphia, I had no doubt of being in that city. In go- 
ing along the street, a black man met me, and I asked him 
if I was in Philadelphia. This question caused the stran- 
ger to laugh loudly; and he passed on without giving m« 



442 THE ADVENTUKES OP 

any answer. Soon afterwards I met an old gentleman, 
with drab clothes on, as I could see by the light of the 
lamps. To him I propounded the same question that 
had been addressed a few moments before to the black 
man. This time, however, I received a civil answer; 
being told that I was in Philadelphia. 

This gentleman seemed concerned for me, either be- 
cause of my wretched and ragged appearance, or because 
I was a stranger, and did not know where I was. Whether 
for the one cause or the other I know not; but he told me 
to follow him, and led me to the house of a black man, 
not far off, whom he directed to take care of me until the 
morning. In this house I was kindly entertained all 
night, and when the morning came the old gentleman in 
drab clothes returned, and brought with him an entire 
suit of clothes, not more than half worn, of which he 
made me a present, and gave me money to buy a hat, and 
some muslin for a couple of shirts. He then turned to go 
away, and said, ^'I perceive thee is a slave, and has run 
away from thy master. Thee can now go to work for thy 
living; but take care that they do not catch thee again.'' I 
then told him that I had been a slave, and had twice run 
away from the state of Georgia. The gentleman seemed a 
little incredulous of that which I told him ; but when I 
explained to him the cause of the condition in which he 
found me, he seemed to become more than ever interested 
in my fate. This gentleman, whose name I^hall not pub- 
lish, has always been a kind friend to me. 

After remaining in Philadelphia a few weeks, I resolved 

to return to my little farm in Maryland, for the purpose of 

selling my property for as much as it would produce, and 

of bringing my wife and children to Pennsylvania. 

On arriving in BaltimorCj I went to a tavern keeper, 



CHARLES BALL. 443 

•yhom I had formerly supplied with vegetables from my 
garden. This man apppeared greatly surprised to see me; 
and asked me how I had managed to escape from my mas- 
ter in G-eorgia. I told him that the man who had taken 
me to Georgia was not my master, but had kidnapped me 
and carried me away by violence. . The tavern keeper 
then told me that I had better leave Baltimore as soon as 
possible, and showed me a hand-bill that was stuck up 
against the wall of his bar-room, in which a hundred and 
fifty dollars reward was offered for my apprehension. I 
immediately left his house, and fled from Baltimore that 
very night. 

When I reached my former residence, I found a white 
man living in it whom I did not know. This man, on 
being questioned by me as to the time he had owned this 
place, and the manner in which he had obtained posses- 
sion, informed me that a black man had formerly lived 
here; but he was a runavaiy slave, and his master had 
come, the summer before, and carried him off. That the 
wife of the former owner of the house was also a slave; 
and that her master had come about six weeks before the 
present time, and taken her and her children, and sold 
them in Baltimore to a slave dealer from the south. 

This man also informed me that he was not in this 
neighborhood at the time the woman and her children 
were carried away; but that he had received his informa- 
tion from a black woman who lived half a mile off. 

This black woman I was well acquainted with; she had 
been my neighbor, and I knew her to be my friend. She 
had been set free, some years before, by a gentleman of 
this neighborhood, and resided under his protection, on a 
part of his land. I immediately went to the house of this 
woman, who could scarcely believe the evidence of her 



444 THE ADVENTURES OF 

own eyes, when she saw me enter her door. The first 
words she spoke to me were, ^'Lucy and her children have 
all been stolen away.'^ At my request she gave me the 
following account of the manner in which my wife and 
children, all of whom had been free from their birth, were 
seized and driven into southern slavery. 

''A few weeks," said she, ^^ after they took you away, 
and before Lucy had so far recovered from the terror pro- 
t uced by that event, as to remain in her house all night 
with her children, without some other company, I went 
one evening to stay all night with her; a kindness that I 
always rendered her, if no other person came to remain 
with her. 

''It was -late when we went to bed, perhaps eleven 
o'clock; and after we had been asleep some time, w« 
were awakened by a loud rap at the door. At first wc 
said nothing ; but upon the rap being several times re- 
peated, Lucy asked who was there. She was then told, 
in a voice that seemed by its sound to be that of a women, 
to get up and open the door; adding, that the per- 
son without had something to tell her that she wished to 
hear. Lucy, supposing the voice to be that of a black 
woman, the slave of a lady living near, rose and opened 
door; but, to our astonishment, instead of a woman 
coming in, four or five men rushed into the house, and 
immediately closed the door; at which one of the men 
stood, with his back against it, until the others made a 
light in the fire place, and proceeded deliberately to tie 
Lucy with a rope. Search was then made in the bed for 
the children; and I was found, and dragged out. This 
seemed to produce some consternation amongst the captors, 
whose faces were all black, but whose hair and visages 
were those of white men. A consultation was held 



CHARLES BALL. 445 

amongst them, the object of which was to determine 
whether I should also be taken along with Lucy and the 
children, or be left behind, on account of the interest 
which my master wag supposed to feel for me. 

^^It was finally agreed, that as it would be very dano-er- 
ous to carry me off, lest my old master should cause pur- 
suit to be made after them, they would leave me behind, 
and take only Lucy and the children. One of the num- 
ber then said it would not do to leave me behind, and at 
liberty, as I would immediately go and give intelligence 
of what I had seen; and if the affair should be discovered 
by the members of the abolition society, before they had 
time to get out of Maryland, they would certainly be de- 
tected and punished for the crimes they were committing. 

^'It was finally resolved to tie me with cords, to one of 
the logs of the house, gag me by tying a rope in my 
mouth, and confining it closely at the back of my neck. 
They immediately confined me, and then took the chil- 
dren from the bed. The oldest boy they tied to his 
mother, and compelled them to go out of the house togeth- , 
er. The three youngest children were taken out of bed, 
and carried off in the hands of the men who tied me to 
the log. I never saw or heard any more of Lucy or her 
children. 

<'For myself, I remained in the house, the door of which 
was carefully closed, and fiistened after it was shut, until 
•the second night after my confinement, without anything 
to eat or drink. On the second night some unknown per- 
sons came and cut the cords that bound me, when I re- 
turned to my own cabin." 

This intelligence almost deprived me of life ; it was the 
most dreadful of all the misfortunes that I had ever suf- 
ered. It was now clear that some slave dealer had come 



44G THE ABVENTrKES OF CHARLES BALL. 

in loj absence, and siezed my wife and children as slavei^, 
and sold them to such men as I had served in the South. 
They had now passed into hopeless bondage, and were 
gone forever beyond my reaoh. I myself was advertised 
as a fugitive slave, and was liable to be arrested at each 
moment, and dragged back to Georgia. I rushed out of 
my own house in despair, and returned to Pennsylvania 
with a broken heart. 

For the last few years, I have resided about fifty miles 
fromPhiladelphia, where I expect to pass the evening of 
my life, in working hard for my subsistence, without the 
least hope of ever again seeing my wife and children; 
fearful, at this day, to let my place of residence be known 
lest even yet it may be supposed, that as an article of 
property, I am of sufficient value to bo worth pursuing in 
my old age. 

THE END. 



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